Denis Bueno wrote:

On Fri, Feb 1, 2008 at 9:03 AM, Loup Vaillant wrote:

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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.

I believe it was Douglas Adams, author of the "trilogy" "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". You may enjoy reading it, if you haven't.

I think Loup is aware of the hitchhiker books (see the reference to the Great Question of ... Everything). So unless Douglas Adams wrote some Haskell papers I am not aware of, the original question is still open ;-) Happy weekend... Janis. -- Dr. Janis Voigtlaender http://wwwtcs.inf.tu-dresden.de/~voigt/ mailto:voigt@tcs.inf.tu-dresden.de

On Feb 1, 2008 9:27 AM, Loup Vaillant wrote:

I suspected this. Just that I didn't noticed 42 but in Haskell papers. Maybe this is just a bias due to my recent interests. I should check some C/C++/Lisp/Ocaml papers.

About the library search, Maybe it is possible to try a giant "grep" on all papers in ACM Portal, or CiteSeer?

I tried this briefly on the ACM. You need to be able to exclude citations, footnotes, volume numbers, etc., and their "Advanced Search" is not quite that advanced. :-) Chris

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"Phil" == Phil Molyneux writes:

Phil> Adams was interested in computing --- I think his reaction Phil> to being told about functional programming was to wonder Phil> what non-functional programming might be. Curiously, that was my reaction too when i first heard of the term (from a university student who was complaining that it was too hard). -- Colin Adams Preston Lancashire

Hi Phil Molyneux writes:

Hi --- The arbitrary constant was made popular by Douglas Adams in the mid-1970s radio series ``A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy'' (a trilogy in 4 parts) --- however it does have a basis in the standard model of physics --- a paper in Phys.Rev. of the early 1970s described the unification of the Electro-Weak and Strong nuclear forces --- the arbitrary constant (of nearly) 42 appears in the calculations. I forget the original paper but if you get hold of Frank Close ``The Cosmic Onion'' a graph reproduces the result. I met Douglas Adams once at a book signing and asked him how he got hold of the Phys.Rev. paper so early. Technically he should have written that ``42 is the answer to life, the universe and everything except for gravity and a few other arbitrary constants''

In the Japanese culture the number 42 has a very special meaning. I realized that while discussing cultural differences with a Japanese. Pronouncing 42 sounds like "death" or "to die". No hotel in Japan has a room 42. After knowing that it is hard to think that Doug Adams was not aware of that meaning. Best, Tinu

That depends partly on how 42 it is pronounced. Normally, it is pronounced "yon-juu-ni," which has no relevance to "death." However, it is also possible to pronounce it "shi-ni," which also means "to die." Incidentally, it is the 4 part of 42 that is pronounced "shi," which alternatively means "death," and I have heard that there is also no hotel room in Japan with the number 4. (However, there are hotel rooms here with the number 13.) (Also, items in department stores are never sold (at least to my knowledge) in sets of 4.) In addition, the age 42 is considered a major climacteric age for men in Japan as well (for those who can read Japanese, see the Japanese Wikipedia entry for "yaku-doshi" (climacteric year)) (http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8E%84%E5%B9%B4). (In general, the ages of 25, 42, and 61 are considered climacteric ages for men, and the ages of 19, 33, and 37 are considered climacteric for women, with 33 being the major climacteric age for women. Incidentally, 33 is pronounced "san-zan," which means "disastrous.") Does anybody else know of any culture where the number 42 holds special meaning; if so, what special meaning? Benjamin L. Russell --- Martin Lüthi wrote:

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In the Japanese culture the number 42 has a very special meaning. I realized that while discussing cultural differences with a Japanese. Pronouncing 42 sounds like "death" or "to die". No hotel in Japan has a room 42.