Hallo, On Wed, May 26, 2010 at 10:08 AM, Dave Bayer <ba...@cpw.math.columbia.edu> wrote: > > Read "Coders at Work": The most reasoned, pragmatic objection to Lisp family > language syntax over e.g. Haskell syntax is simply code density. This > consideration gets up-ended if one's primary constraint is entering code > through a novel, limited bandwidth interface. Lisp's parentheses are an > historical artifact tied to an input method that iPad-like devices will help > supplant; even on keyboards one can get rid of most parentheses by the > Haskell $ op and resolving the "missing outline levels" issue. One actually > thinks in syntax trees, and could enter them directly as trees through a > gesture-based editor that understood the grammar, your choices and their > probabilities. >
Have you ever tried the paredit minor mode for Emacs? It's a minor mode that keeps parentheses balanced no matter what, with several commands like slurp the next or previous s-expression, or barf the next or previous s-expression. Bound to gestures, these commands would make editing Lisp code a no-brainer in touch-oriented devices. I know everybody is tired of hearing this, but Lisp's syntactic power comes from its simplicity and uniformity. Cheers, -- -alex http://www.ventonegro.org/ _______________________________________________ Haskell mailing list Haskell@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell