On Wed, May 5, 2010 at 1:36 PM, Robby Findler <ro...@eecs.northwestern.edu> wrote: > When printing out things that look like programs, the qq-based printer > is really invaluable, but my experience is that the constructor form > is better for everything else. > > I never seriously experimented with hybrids, however, because I feared > that the rule for deciding between (list ...) and `(...) would be too > brittle. > > Perhaps it is time to give it a try, tho? > > Robby
I think this is either a quirk of working with expressions-as-s-expression (e.g. Redex) or just of working with purely s-expression-based data. I'm going to guess that most of your output doesn't actually use the "quasi" part of "quasiquote", which is the confusing part. Perhaps our printer should use constructor-style printing until it gets down to a quotable datum, at which point it can use regular quote? Then s-expressions print simply, Redex output will look like programs, but interleaved s-expressions, structures, and other un-quotable data will not be a mess of backticks and commas. This goes back somewhat on my previous statement about different representations of lists in one kind of output, but I think it may be a more manageable kind of switch in that it won't go back and forth, quote will always be only at the leaves. Alternately, perhaps there simply are different output requirements for different applications, and anyone using just s-expressions with no structures or opaque data should manually select quasiquote style printing (either on the menu or with an explicit update of current-print). --Carl _________________________________________________ For list-related administrative tasks: http://list.cs.brown.edu/mailman/listinfo/plt-dev
