4 ms·

It's not something we ever really think about. That list of closing parentheses just signals termination of the top-level S-expression. And there's virtually n

by KingMob 10y ago

It's not something we ever really think about. That list of closing parentheses just signals termination of the top-level S-expression. And there's virtually nobody coding in a Lisp that doesn't use a structural editing mode (like Paredit or SmartParens). E.g., any time you type "(", you get "()", enforcing balance. What we rely on is proper indentation to indicate the important groupings.

sigjuice 10y ago
Exactly. IMHO, this is quite similar to Python indentation rules, except it is up to writers of Lisp code to be disciplined enough to maintain the proper indentation.
- lisper 10y ago
  No. Our editors auto-indent the code for us. This is one of the reasons Lisp syntax is better than python. Python syntax does not have enough information to auto-indent so it really is up to the programmer. Not so with Lisp.
  - nitroll 10y ago
    I hate when I code python and refactor stuff, moving stuff around and such, that I cant just copy/clip around and then do a final 'indent all my work correctly' like I can in a language like lisp. I am kind of developing a grudge against whitespace sensitive languages. Not because it forces the programmer to indent properly, but because it disables my editors abilities to do it for me.
    - lisper 10y ago
      Actually, Python has the equivalent of open-parens: the colon. What it doesn't have is close-parens, but if you use emacs then it will outdent on PASS and RETURN statements. In my personal coding style I always put PASS statements at the end of block so my code auto-indents properly. Hard-core Pythonistas hate this, but I really don't care what they think.
- lispm 10y ago
  Hmm, my editor does it for me. Wait, even Lisp does that for me, because it has a built-in source code pretty printer: Call the pretty printer to format this mess: CL-USER 41 > (let ((*print-case* :downcase)) (pprint '(defun add-text-padding (str &key padding newline) "Add padding to text STR. Every line except for the first one, will be prefixed with PADDING spaces. If NEWLINE is non-NIL, newline character will be prepended to the text making it start on the next line with padding applied to every single line." (let ((str (if newline (concatenate 'string (string #\Newline) str) str))) (with-output-to-string (s) (map 'string (lambda (x) (princ x s) (when (char= x #\Newline) (dotimes (i padding) (princ #\Space s)))) str)))) )) It prints wonderfully formatted and indented code: (defun add-text-padding (str &key padding newline) "Add padding to text STR. Every line except for the first one, will be prefixed with PADDING spaces. If NEWLINE is non-NIL, newline character will be prepended to the text making it start on the next line with padding applied to every single line." (let ((str (if newline (concatenate 'string (string #\Newline) str) str))) (with-output-to-string (s) (map 'string (lambda (x) (princ x s) (when (char= x #\Newline) (dotimes (i padding) (princ #\Space s)))) str)))) Now one would only need to fix this beginner level code.
lispm 10y ago
Actually I write Lisp code, but I use neither Paredit nor SmartParens. I don't automatically balance my parentheses.

by KingMob 10y ago

sigjuice 10y ago

Exactly. IMHO, this is quite similar to Python indentation rules, except it is up to writers of Lisp code to be disciplined enough to maintain the proper indentation.

lisper 10y ago
No. Our editors auto-indent the code for us. This is one of the reasons Lisp syntax is better than python. Python syntax does not have enough information to auto-indent so it really is up to the programmer. Not so with Lisp.
- nitroll 10y ago
  I hate when I code python and refactor stuff, moving stuff around and such, that I cant just copy/clip around and then do a final 'indent all my work correctly' like I can in a language like lisp. I am kind of developing a grudge against whitespace sensitive languages. Not because it forces the programmer to indent properly, but because it disables my editors abilities to do it for me.
  - lisper 10y ago
    Actually, Python has the equivalent of open-parens: the colon. What it doesn't have is close-parens, but if you use emacs then it will outdent on PASS and RETURN statements. In my personal coding style I always put PASS statements at the end of block so my code auto-indents properly. Hard-core Pythonistas hate this, but I really don't care what they think.
lispm 10y ago
Hmm, my editor does it for me. Wait, even Lisp does that for me, because it has a built-in source code pretty printer: Call the pretty printer to format this mess: CL-USER 41 > (let ((*print-case* :downcase)) (pprint '(defun add-text-padding (str &key padding newline) "Add padding to text STR. Every line except for the first one, will be prefixed with PADDING spaces. If NEWLINE is non-NIL, newline character will be prepended to the text making it start on the next line with padding applied to every single line." (let ((str (if newline (concatenate 'string (string #\Newline) str) str))) (with-output-to-string (s) (map 'string (lambda (x) (princ x s) (when (char= x #\Newline) (dotimes (i padding) (princ #\Space s)))) str)))) )) It prints wonderfully formatted and indented code: (defun add-text-padding (str &key padding newline) "Add padding to text STR. Every line except for the first one, will be prefixed with PADDING spaces. If NEWLINE is non-NIL, newline character will be prepended to the text making it start on the next line with padding applied to every single line." (let ((str (if newline (concatenate 'string (string #\Newline) str) str))) (with-output-to-string (s) (map 'string (lambda (x) (princ x s) (when (char= x #\Newline) (dotimes (i padding) (princ #\Space s)))) str)))) Now one would only need to fix this beginner level code.

lispm 10y ago

Actually I write Lisp code, but I use neither Paredit nor SmartParens. I don't automatically balance my parentheses.