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I think it's more accurate to say that Lisp has a metasyntax rather than a syntax. Each special form and macro, including user-written macros, has its own synt
by ScottBurson 16y ago
I think it's more accurate to say that Lisp has a metasyntax rather than a syntax. Each special form and macro, including user-written macros, has its own syntax; but all of these syntax are layered on top of the standard metasyntax.
- gnaritas 16y agoThis is a good point, and it's one of the things I don't like about Lisp. You can't know the semantics of evaluation without memorizing each form or having a doc handy. The code at the call site itself is not enough.
- scott_s 16y agoInterestingly, that's similar to the criticism often levied at operator overloading in C++.
- gnaritas 16y agoSimilar, but different. Operator overloading doesn't affect evaluation. You know immediately what is being evaluation now and what isn't, not so in Lisp, and this matters a great deal.