It's a good idea. Not for anyone to actually use, but as an demonstration of "code is data," and of the separation of surface syntax from the code data-structure. Can you do this without reader macros? Can you keep it homoiconic? (Apparently so, given the transformation rules, but I wonder if there are any corner cases.)
Joshua On Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 5:42 PM, Mark Volkmann <r.mark.volkm...@gmail.com>wrote: > > I have an idea I'd like to float to see if there are reasons why it's > a bad idea. > > What if Clojure had an alternate "surface" syntax that was translated > into standard Clojure syntax by a kind of preprocessor? > > Many people that don't like Lisp dialects don't like them because of > the parentheses. I'm trying to address that. > > Here's a simple example of valid Clojure code. > > (defn pig-latin [word] > (let [first-letter (first word)] > (if (.contains "aeiou" (str first-letter)) > (str word "ay") > (str (subs word 1) first-letter "ay")))) > > (println (pig-latin "red")) > (println (pig-latin "orange")) > > Here's what that same code would look like in my alternate syntax. > > defn pig-latin [word] > let [first-letter (first word)] > if .contains "aeiou" (str first-letter) > str word "ay" > str (subs word 1) first-letter "ay" > > println (pig-latin "red") > println (pig-latin "orange") > > The rules for turning this into standard Clojure syntax are pretty simple. > > 1) If a line is indented farther than the previous one, it is part of > the previous line. > 2) If a line doesn't start with a (, then add one. > 3) If the next line is indented less than this one, add the > appropriate number of )'s at the end. > 4) If the first token on a line is "if" and the first non-whitespace > character after it is not ( > then assume the rest of the line is the condition and wrap it in ( ). > > A translation from standard Clojure syntax to this alternate form > should also be possible. > > Is this a bad idea? > > -- > R. Mark Volkmann > Object Computing, Inc. > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Clojure" group. To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
