Loup,
This is not unique to the Haskell community. I suspect the arbitrary
constant 42 has been appearing unexplained in research papers for as
long as there have been computer scientists who were sci-fi geeks
(absolutely no offense intended to geeks ;-). It would be very
difficult indeed to figure out who did this first, without some highly
dedicated library research.
Chris
On Feb 1, 2008 9:03 AM, Loup Vaillant
I have read quite a lot of Haskell papers, lately, and noticed that the number 42 appeared quite often, in informal tutorials as well as in very serious research papers. No wonder Haskell is the Answer to The Great Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything, but I would like to know who started this, and when.
Google wasn't much help, and I can't believe it's coincidence --hence this email. I hope I didn't opened some Pandora box. :-)
Cheers, Loup _______________________________________________ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe