The thing about lisps, though, is that code and data are represented
with the same structure. Adding sugar that makes them appear to be
different things would not help anyone, especially the beginner. It
will make grasping macros, among other things, much more difficult
down the road. Getting used to the syntax is, for practical reasons,
a necessary, and short, process, and giving new users a way to bypass
that would hurt more than it helps. (Not to mention the effect on
experienced users of having to now deal with this additional syntax in
code in the wild.)
That said, don't let me stop you from having fun and learning with
this little experiment ;)
On Thu, Dec 29, 2011 at 11:35 AM, Louis Yu Lu <louisy...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Agree on looking from the angle of data structure and their internal
> presentation. But conceptually, [] and {} are just syntax sugars:
> [x y] -> (vector x y)
> {x y} -> (hash-map x y)
> #{x y} -> (hash-set x y)
> The 2 element structures are all become 3 element lists.
>
> Louis
>
> On Dec 29, 7:03 am, James Reeves <jree...@weavejester.com> wrote:
>> On 29 December 2011 04:49, Louis Yu Lu <louisy...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > Instead of using overloaded (), may be f[x] will cause less trouble,
>> > and more inline with clojure's syntax as [ ] already being used for
>> > defining the arguments of the function.
>>
>> I think you need to look at this from a slightly different angle.
>>
>> In Clojure, as in all Lisps, code is represented by data structures.
>> In Clojure, (x y) is a linked list of two elements, [x y] is a vector,
>> and {x y} a map. You need to think about Clojure code in terms of the
>> data structures beneath.
>>
>> So you're proposing that x[y] be considered a two-element list. This
>> is an unusual syntax for defining a list in any language I know, and
>> looks confusingly similar to a single element followed by a vector.
>>
>> Try not to ask the question, "What syntax is good for representing a
>> function call?" and instead ask, "What syntax is good for representing
>> a linked list of elements?"
>>
>> - James
>
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