On 3/3/08, Tim Daly wrote: > I guess the fundamental point is this: > > Using s-expression syntax allows the full use of lisp. >
That is an empty statement. > ... > As soon as you move away from the s-expression syntax you > lose it all. You have to write "strings" that "have meaning", given > by a parser, compiler, translator, etc. Lisp loses the special > property of "turtles all the way down". It becomes just another > programming language. Nonesense. Many languages have the property that expressions in the language (or even whole programs) can be represented as a data structure in that language. For example, Gaby has provided such a domain for OpenAxiom written in SPAD and called Syntax. There is nothing very special about s-expressions that cannot also be expressed by some other tree-like recursive data type. > > Boot turns lisp into "just another language". > Lisp is "just another language". Regards, Bill Page. _______________________________________________ Axiom-developer mailing list [email protected] http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/axiom-developer
