Some people prefer not to commingle the functional, lambda-calculus part of a language with the parts that do side effects. It seems they believe in the separation of Church and state. Guy Steele More Quotes by Guy Steele More Quotes From Guy Steele A man, a plan, a canoe, pasta, heros, rajahs, a coloratura, maps, snipe, percale, macaroni, a gag, a banana bag, a tan, a tag, a banana bag again (or a camel), a crepe, pins, Spam, a rut, a Rolo, cash, a jar, sore hats, a peon, a canal - Panama Guy Steele camels hero men We were not out to win over the Lisp programmers; we were after the C++ programmers. We managed to drag a lot of them about halfway to Lisp. Guy Steele halfway drag winning If you give someone Fortran, he has Fortran. If you give someone Lisp, he has any language he pleases Guy Steele computer language giving The continuation that obeys only obvious stack semantics, O grasshopper, is not the true continuation. Guy Steele continuation grasshoppers obvious There's a story about how the program is organized, there's a story about the context in which the program is expected to operate. And one would hope that there will be something about the program, whether it's block comments at the start of each routine or an overview document that comes separately or just choices of variable names that will somehow convey those stories to you. Guy Steele block choices names