I used to be a big Python user, and I liked the use of whitespace for structure back then. The only time it caused me a problem was when cutting and pasting code fragments, which didn't happen very often. Now that I've been using Racket (Scheme) and Clojure for a while, I like the parentheses better. My only complaint is that I have to press the shift key to type them.
I'm also teaching Racket to High School students. The simple regular syntax of Racket is much easier for them to learn than Java, which I taught a couple of years ago. They seldom have problems with syntax errors in Racket, but they did all the time in Java. Teaching with Racket, I can focus on logic and design rather than syntax. Since most of my students have done very little programming before, they are not scared by the parentheses. So, I've come to the conclusion that parenthesis-hate is just prejudice. Lisps don't look like the languages people already know. Python actually fights the same kind of problem with people who come from the C/Java world because significant whitespace is different from what they are used to. And in the old days when I first learned C, most people were used to Fortran, Cobol, Basic, and Pascal, and they complained about the curly-braces and terseness of C. If someone wants to create a no-parenthesis version of Clojure, that would be fine, but it wouldn't be Clojure. Many of the good qualities of Clojure would work in a non-Lisp language, and it might develop a following. However, I don't think you will find many people who currently like Clojure to be interested in doing the work because they probably like the parentheses. Why should they spend time creating another language when you like what you have? -- -- 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 Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with your first post. 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 --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Clojure" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
