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What exactly is the different between "extensible programming" and "extendible programming?"

Wikipedia states the following:

The Lisp language community remained separate from the extensible language community, apparently because, as one researcher observed, any programming language in which programs and data are essentially interchangeable can be regarded as an extendible [sic] language. ... this can be seen very easily from the fact that Lisp has been used as an extendible language for years.

If I'm understanding this correctly, it says "Lisp is extendible implies Lisp is not extensible". So what do these two terms mean, and how do they differ?

loudandclear
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    Belongs on http://english.stackexchange.com/ – S.Lott Jun 27 '11 at 10:16
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    I don't think so. I'm not asking about the everyday usage of these terms, but their usage related to programming. – loudandclear Jun 27 '11 at 19:12
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    both mean the same thing according to dictionary.com – Engineer2021 Jun 27 '11 at 19:13
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    `[sic]` [typically means the previous word is being used directly as quoted, even if it is an error or used incorrectly to preserve the accuracy of the quotation.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sic) –  Jun 27 '11 at 19:48
  • Every turing complete language can be implemented in Lisp, the reverse isn't true. There is also the old nugget, "Those who do not know Lisp are doomed to reinvent it." - Erik Naggum –  Jun 27 '11 at 19:52
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    @Jarrod Roberson: the reverse would be "Lisp can be implemented in any Turing complete language". I guess it must be true, otherwise it would imply that Lisp is beyond a Turing machine, doing something non-algorithmically complex. – Javier Jun 30 '11 at 16:06

3 Answers3

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I call semantic shenanigans.

Extensible has one meaning: able to be extended. Extendible means the same thing. They are both adjectival forms of extend.

Extend covers a variety of contexts, from mass, to length, to ability.

The difference seems to be (from reading the wiki article) that extensible programming languages use a meta language to alter themselves, whereas extendible languages are modifiable using themselves, and Lisps use the transposability of data and programmes to do that.

Matt Ellen
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I read it as "Lisp doesn't bother with 'extensible language' works because it's already extensible by design". IOW: the 'extensible language community' is working hard to get what Lisp already has; but without being Lisp.

Javier
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Wikipedia uses the term extensible throughout the article. The quote from the M. C. Harrison (included in your extract) uses the term extendible. "[sic]" is placed after the first use of "extendible" in the quote to indicate that the word choice is that of the original speaker and not an error in transcription.

This implies to me that the Wikipedia editors did not intend to make any distinction between the two words, but of course they didn't want to change Harrison's quote either. You may also note that the 1960 symposium from which the quote was taken was titled Panel on the Concept of Extensibility, so I think it likely that "extensibility" is the more common choice for this term.

For an interpretation of the intended overall meaning, I would agree with Javier's answer.

Community
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John Bartholomew
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