Hi, At Wed, 23 May 2012 12:54:18 -0400 (EDT), David A Wheeler wrote: > > Alpheus Madsen <alpheus.mad...@gmail.com> > > One thought I've been wanting to experiment with, but haven't had the time > > to attempt to implement, is to use a double-indent to indicate groups. > > I think that's even worse. It's very unreadable. It's also ambiguous for > the first indent; does "two spaces" mean an indent of two spaces, or a > double-indent for one-space indenting?
Using double indent had also been my first idea, but I discarded it, because the meaning of the double indent would not be obvious without the less-indented line which comes later - it would be ambigous. example: (let ((a b)(c d)) (e)) becomes let a b c d e Imagine 5 let arguments and you cannot know anymore if it’s double-indented. Compare let . a b c d e The reason why I chose the . is to avoid adding any new syntax elements. . is already used to create cons-cels, but it has little use on its own: (if (equal (. (quote "abc")) (quote "abc")) t) ; this syntax would be invalid with the .-notation. if equal . quote "abc" quote "abc" t Also I like about the . that it is so small: It is almost like double indent, but explicit. And it scales: (a (((((b c)))))) → a . . . . b c here it is explicit what happens, even though the code is evil. Best wishes, Arne PS: Only answering now, because I we just moved, so I was overloaded for quite some time. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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