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by dreamcompiler 2200 days ago
Sussman is not just "a professor at MIT." He's one of the inventors of Scheme and one of the authors of SICP. And perhaps most apropos for this article, one of the founders of the FSF, along with of course RMS.
4 comments

> Sussman is not just "a professor at MIT."

Your comment could be taken out of context here. I am no language expert, but it's better to use the form "Sussman is not only a professor at MIT, but also ...".

"just" is probably overused these days. It has replaced words like "please" and structures like above.

Contrast:

a) Can you just do that

b) Can you please get that

Agreed. This is a language habit I need to break.
> Sussman is not just "a professor at MIT."

You're the only person who said 'just'! You're arguing against something you said.

My intent was to elaborate on the parent's phrase "For a professor to use only FLOSS when teaching CS students...", not to accuse him/her of ignorance. If my use of the word "just" sounded argumentative, I apologize.
He didn't put "just" in his quotes, so it wasn't part of the wording being argued with.
Nowhere in the comment to which you're replying was Sussman called just a professor.
Sussman is awesome. But I'd like all professors, everywhere, to consider FLOSS as a possible good match for their missions -- and not dismiss it as something for only a handful of exceptional specialists to do.