I V <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > On Sun, 10 Dec 2006 03:18:07 -0500, Bill Atkins wrote: >> We're not counting lines here, you goon. We're talking about how >> expressive constructs are and how closely they match your concept of >> what you want to do. The conditional example is lower-level; you're >> talking to the interpreter instead of saying what you want to achieve. >> You're having to repeat things because that's what the language asks >> of you, instead of describing in a higher-level way what you're >> actually doing. > > To be a little provocative, I wonder if the idea that you're "talking to > the interpreter" doesn't apply more to lisp than to python; you can have > any syntax you like, as long as it looks like an AST.
Uhhh? > One of the things I've always found off-putting about lisp as that all the > syntax looks the same. In Algol-derived languages, each syntactic > construct has a fairly distinctive appearance, so when, for instance, I > encounter a for loop, I can quickly recognize that that's what it is, and > bracket out the "scaffolding" and pick out the details that interest me. > With lisp, I can't do that, I have to read through the sexp, decide on > what syntax it is, and then remind myself where to look for the relevant > specific details. "Decide on what syntax it is"? Examples? > Now, this might well be just due to my comparative lack of familiarity > with lisp; I'd be interested to hear if you lisp people find different > lisp constructs as visually distinctive as constructs in python (or other > similar languages). But I think what people are getting at when they > complain about "all the brackets" in lisp may actually be this issue of > a visual distinction between different constructs (this is also a reason > why having a limited number of syntactic constructs can be helpful - there > are a probably a limited number of stereotypical layouts a programmer can > keep in their mind at once). We rely on indentation for readability just as you guys do. Lisp programs are not chaotic arrangements of parentheses and symbols; code structure is made apparent through indentation. (Why are people from c.l.p calling parentheses "brackets"?) -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list