Here's an interesting idea from Arne Babenhauserheide. It's a fair point. The only reason that I used "group" was because this made it compatible with a previous proposal.
Comments? --- David A. Wheeler ----- Start Original Message ----- Sent: Mon, 21 May 2012 17:11:20 +0200 From: Arne Babenhauserheide ( arne_bab at web dot de...) To: dwhee...@dwheeler.com Subject: sweet expressions and group (xyzzy) > Dear David A. Wheeler, > > I read your sweet expressions work and I liked it very much - except > for the group keyword as replacement of ((. > > Reason: I dabbled with expressionless-lisp myself, though only on > paper, with elisp in mind and limited experience with other lisps > > What I love about indentation-sensitive programming is that it is > possible to reduce the syntax to the bare necessities for > understanding the code. With the group-keyword you use a pretty heavy > identifier for (( - its actually heavier than the orgininal syntax. > > The alternative I came up with is a . on its own line. It is the > syntax-element which is already used and which does not normally > appear in front of lists. > > The . as infix creates a cons-cell, and it seems that it (. a) simply > is a, so it seems nonsensical to me to use (. ( anywhere. > > To use the common let syntax as comparision: > > With groups it looks like this: > > let > group > a b > > With a dot it changes to: > > let > . > a b > > This makes the syntax much lighter for the reader while still clearly > marking the double-brackets. > > but as with everything, just treat this as an idea. I really like > your sweet-expressions work! > > Best wishes, > Arne > > PS: I normally write in Python and love it, but I also see the power of lisp > (mainly through customizing my emacs), so I wish it were easier to read. > ----- End Original Message ----- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ _______________________________________________ Readable-discuss mailing list Readable-discuss@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/readable-discuss
