The Syntax Clinic
A man walks into a room.
“Is this the right room for an argument about syntax?”
“I’ve told you once.”
“No you haven’t.”
“Yes I have.”
“When?”
“Just now.”
“No you didn’t. You just contradicted me.”
“No I didn’t.”
“You did! Look — (bind x 42). That’s syntax. It has meaning.”
“No it doesn’t. It’s a list containing an atom, an atom, and a number.”
“But bind creates a binding. It’s an immutable declaration.”
“It’s an atom. Four characters. B-I-N-D. I don’t know what a binding is. I produce structure.”
“Then who assigns the meaning?”
“Not my department.”
The man stares at the list. The list stares back, its parentheses conveying neither meaning nor the absence of meaning, merely the serene structural fact of its own grouping.
“This isn’t an argument,” the man says.
“Yes it is. It’s a list of three things, and you’re arguing about what they mean. That’s the most productive kind of argument in computer science — the kind where both sides are right and the disagreement is the architecture.”