On Sat, Apr 11, 2009 at 12:26 AM, Scott Morrison <scott.c.morri...@gmail.com> wrote: > As Dick Jenks explained it to me when I joined the Axiom project in 1984, > the Boot language was intended as a boot-strap step to eventually implement > the entire system in the Spad language. The idea was first to convert to a > language that was syntactically similar to Spad, then convert it to actually > use Spad. Of course the second step never happened. That's why the > language was named Boot. > While Boot does have the semantics of Lisp, to me, the distinguishing > feature is it's very nice syntax for list pattern matching. You can do the > same things in Lisp, but the syntactic elegance of Boot for pattern matching > is undeniable. It was so nice that we got away without real structured data > throughout the entire project. I love the syntax:
I couldn't agree more. I think Boot was a real master piece -- just look at the size of the parser and translator. Yes, definitely the pattern matching syntax is really nice. -- Gaby ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This SF.net email is sponsored by: High Quality Requirements in a Collaborative Environment. Download a free trial of Rational Requirements Composer Now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/www-ibm-com _______________________________________________ open-axiom-devel mailing list open-axiom-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/open-axiom-devel
