RUSH
<language>
1. An interactive dialect of PL/I, related to CPS, dated about 1966. The name is the abbreviation of "Remote Use of Shared Hardware".
["Introduction to RUSH", Allen-Babcock Computing 1969. Sammet 1969, p.309.]<language>
2. A high-level language that closely resembles Tcl but aimed to provide substantially faster execution. See An Introduction to the Rush Language. by Adam Sah, Jon Blow, and Brian Dennis (1994).
Last updated: 1996-12-17
Russell
<language>
(After Bertrand Russell) A compact, polymorphically typed functional language by A. Demers & J. Donahue with bignums and continuations. Types are themselves first-class values and may be passed as arguments.
ftp://parcftp.xerox.com/pub/russell/russell.tar.Z. ["An Informal Description of Russell", H. Boehm et al, Cornell CS TR 80-430, 1980]. ["Understanding Russell: A First Attempt", J.G. Hook in LNCS 173, Springer].Last updated: 1995-03-27
Russell, Bertrand
Bertrand RussellRussell's Attic
An imaginary room containing countably many pairs of shoes (i.e. a pair for each natural number), and countably many pairs of socks. How many shoes are there? Answer: countably many (map the left shoes to even numbers and the right shoes to odd numbers, say). How many socks are there? Also countably many, we want to say, but we can't prove it without the Axiom of Choice, because in each pair, the socks are indistinguishable (there's no such thing as a left sock). Although for any single pair it is easy to select one, we cannot specify a general method for doing this.
Last updated: 1995-03-29
Russell's Paradox
A paradox (logical contradiction) in set theory discovered by Bertrand Russell. If R is the set of all sets which don't contain themselves, does R contain itself? If it does then it doesn't and vice versa.
The paradox stems from the acceptance of the following axiom: If P(x) is a property then {x : P}
is a set. This is the Axiom of Comprehension (actually an
axiom schema). By applying it in the case where P is the
property "x is not an element of x", we generate the paradox,
i.e. something clearly false. Thus any theory built on this
axiom must be inconsistent.
In lambda-calculus Russell's Paradox can be formulated by
representing each set by its characteristic function - the
property which is true for members and false for non-members.
The set R becomes a function r which is the negation of its
argument applied to itself:
r = \ x . not (x x)If we now apply r to itself,
r r = (\ x . not (x x)) (\ x . not (x x))
= not ((\ x . not (x x))(\ x . not (x x)))
= not (r r)
So if (r r) is true then it is false and vice versa.
An alternative formulation is: "if the barber of Seville is a
man who shaves all men in Seville who don't shave themselves,
and only those men, who shaves the barber?" This can be taken
simply as a proof that no such barber can exist whereas
seemingly obvious axioms of set theory suggest the existence
of the paradoxical set R.
Zermelo Fränkel set theory is one "solution" to this
paradox. Another, type theory, restricts sets to contain
only elements of a single type, (e.g. integers or sets of
integers) and no type is allowed to refer to itself so no set
can contain itself.
A message from Russell induced Frege to put a note in his
life's work, just before it went to press, to the effect that
he now knew it was inconsistent but he hoped it would be
useful anyway.
Last updated: 2000-11-01
rusty iron
Synonym tired iron. It has been claimed that this is the inevitable fate of water MIPS.
[Jargon File]Last updated: 1995-03-25
rusty memory
Mass-storage that uses iron-oxide-based magnetic media (especially magnetic tape and the pre-Winchester removable disk packs used in washing machines).
Compare donuts. [Jargon File]Last updated: 1997-07-20
Nearby terms:
Run-Time Type Information ♦ ruptime ♦ RUSH ♦ Russell ♦ Russell, Bertrand
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