On Mon, Nov 22, 2010 at 10:47:51PM +0100, Jörg F. Wittenberger wrote: > May I ask a simple question: what is the actual rational behind keywords > (wrt. symbols)?
You may ask any question you wish :) > Are there any good references? I'm not sure. It appears to be one of those typical "historically grown" things. The DSSSL standard contains *some* documentation for them, but it boils down to "they're almost like symbols, except self-evaluating" :) I found a copy of the DSSSL draft here: ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/sun-info/standards/dsssl/draft/ It's in some odd "DynaText" format though. Luckily it's more-or-less readable in plaintext. > Could we do away with them? > > Boil them down to mere read syntax? ( 'x same as x: ?) Maybe. It would make mistakes a lot easier though, since now keywords can be distinguished from optional variables more easily. I think we'll finally see a proper rigorous treatment of keywords when the RnRS process decides to take it upon them to standardize them ;) Cheers, Peter -- http://sjamaan.ath.cx -- "The process of preparing programs for a digital computer is especially attractive, not only because it can be economically and scientifically rewarding, but also because it can be an aesthetic experience much like composing poetry or music." -- Donald Knuth _______________________________________________ Chicken-users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/chicken-users
