[PD] escaping \

[Mathieu Bouchard]

On Thu, 7 Jul 2005, Tim Blechmann wrote:
> iirc it took more than 500 years after the fibonacci numbers has been
> defined to find a direct (non-recursive way) to compute elements

Fibonacci hasn't defined the Fibonacci numbers. He imported them from the 
Arabs, who already knew about them and their appearance in biological 
patterns; but I think I recall that they actually had learned that from 
some other people. I think you can date it back to year 800 or before.

But then, there weren't people actually looking for a "non-recursive way" 
for 500 years in a row non-stop. It's not like DeepThought taking 7500000 
years to answer "42" you know. ;-)

Plus, which definition of integer multiplication do you use that doesn't 
use recursion at all? :-P

> ... how long took it to prove fermat's last theorem?

350 years. (How is this related to backslashes anyway?)

> maybe there is a superior design, that will be thought of in 30 or 300
> years ... still, i'd prefer a non-optimal solution until then ...

How long did it take to invent Object-Oriented COBOL ?

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