Paul Rubin wrote:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
I can't imagine how it could be worse than the learning curve of
__metaclass__, which we already have.
To me, learning macros *and their subtilities* was much more difficult
than learning metaclasses.
I guess I've only used Lisp macros in pretty straightforward ways,
that weren't hard to understand. That's enough for anything I've
needed. But we don't hear much about __metaclass__ because almost
nobody understands it.
Paraphrasing Tim Peters, "if you don't definitely know that you need
metaclasses then you almost certainly don't". The primary reason for the
existence of metaclasses is as an implementation detail that allows
basic Python types to be base classes for inheritance. Python could have
hidden this mechanism, but the generally introspective nature of the
language makes it sensible to expose the mechanism for (ab)use by
knowledgeable users.
Go to comp.lang.scheme and google for "macros and module system";
you will get everything you want to know and much more!
OK, I might do this.
Well I'd be interested to know what you find out, not being a Lisper myself.
Well, I see this as a positive fact. If a syntax is contrived (such
as a ternary operator, for instance) it is better *not* to have it
than to have one hundred custom made syntaxes. At the end, we are
just talking about syntax sugar here, not about lack of
functionality.
I think the idea is there would be some experimentation and then one of
the versions would make it into the standard library.
Erm, you'd put syntax into a library module? That would be in
__future__, I take it?
[compiling Lisp to Python bytecode]
This is a bizarre idea if you want to make Python run faster. It is
not so bizarre if what you want is to have access to Python from
Lisp/Scheme in the same sense Jython has access to Java.
Why not just use a foreign function interface?
regards
Steve
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