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> re-release LISP with cleaner syntax. A lot of the flexibility of lisp relies on there being no difference between a list of symbols and code (for, example, t
by Kamq 4y ago
> re-release LISP with cleaner syntax.
A lot of the flexibility of lisp relies on there being no difference between a list of symbols and code (for, example, this is how the entire macro system works).
Function calls being inside the parentheses (and, really, all language constructs just being lists of symbols) is generally what people mean when they say the syntax throws people.
These two things are at odds.
You could go with Racket's method of letting people use alternate delimiters, but that's a fairly trivial reader macro in common lisp and probably not worth releasing a language over.
- charcircuit 4y agoThe macro system can just work with an AST instead of a list.
- Kamq 4y agoPlenty of successors to lisp have tried that. They gunk up the whole experience.
- bslatkin 4y agoLet me know if you'd like to give it a shot to see how gunky it is!
- Kamq 4y agoI mean, I'd be down to try. Best I've seen so far (outside of lisp) is elixir, but it really bogs down the entire thing by requiring a bunch of extra information and metadata that common lisp can infer by position and an extra layer of indirection.
- bslatkin 4y agoContact form here: https://quil.la/FVZ3PMZC https://quil.la/FVZ3PMZC Thanks!