I'm not going over why s-expressions are the way to go, mr. Rivest did it best in his 1997 MIT doc:
https://people.csail.mit.edu/rivest/Sexp.txt A parens-less Racket2 would become Crystal. And I don't think we need yet another functional parens-less language. We already have Haskell (hard to read) and Crystal (weird half-commercial proposition that won't produce binaries without major hacks). I say we keep the parens but make them even less intrusive. Newlisp may be an ugly hack, but its simplified forms and anaphoric vars are very nice to use. For example: http://www.newlisp.org/downloads/newlisp_manual.html#if Dex On Mon, Jul 22, 2019 at 5:11 AM Ray Racine <ray.rac...@gmail.com> wrote: > Over the years I have loved Racket ... except for those parens ... if > only. I don't know when it happened but one day parens and I made a peace > treaty, mind melded, became enlightened or just got tired of fighting, but > right now I can't see a Racket without parens (s-exps). I have, in fact, > grown rather fond of them. > > There is the bottom up approach to grow Racket2 from examples and snippets > of syntax all to be compared and endlessly debated. > > Rhetorical mullings from the top down perspective is interesting. > > Assume a Racket2 will not be another Ruby or Python as Racket is a BIG > language and could not be compressed down to a simplistic Python or simple > lisp without parens Ruby. And what is the point of Racket2 being a Ruby or > Python wanna-be anyway? Would the world move to a better Python/Ruby? > > Assume it will not be some variation of a Swift, Java or C#. > > If moving from s-exp to traditional in-fix and f(x,y,z) function > application makes sense to seek wider adoption, would not moving from > functional to imperative also make sense? After all, all the popular > languages are imperative, therefore, to enhance the likelihood of wide > adoption should Racket2 be imperative as well? > > But then wouldn't Racket2 be Algol2 or Ada2 with macros? > > If it stays functional and expression based with macros then isn't Racket2 > then Dylan2? > > Of the three axioms of Racket2, the f(x,y,z) proscription prohibits some > of the cleaner syntax out there as used in SML and Haskell. Is it a hard > requirement to ensure full macro support can happen? > > If Racket2 moves to be even more functional in thrust, drops the f(x,y,z) > proscription and adopts currying then isn't Racket2 a polished up nextgen > SML2? > > Maybe a nextgen SML2 for semantics and typing but with the lighter Haskell > syntax (no laziness)? > > What will be the magic twist for widespread adoption that Algol, Ada, > Dylan, SML, Haskell and s-exp Racket, all with quality implementations, > failed to achieve? > > How much of a languages adoption success is just shear dumb luck, the > right place at the right time independent of the languages overall quality > and capability? Does Javascript even need to mentioned here? > > Should we cover all possible bases and make Racket and its "make > languages" core a nextgen DotNet and put together a whole suite of > languages, a Lisp like, an Algo like, a SML like, a Haskell like, a > Java/Swift like, an Erlang like, ... all interoperable. If that all of > that happened tomorrow by magic would the world embrace Racket(2...). > > > > > > > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Racket Users" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to racket-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/racket-users/c8abfd8b-3304-4ed5-9e23-bf2f1d7da8cb%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/racket-users/c8abfd8b-3304-4ed5-9e23-bf2f1d7da8cb%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Racket Users" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to racket-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/racket-users/CACUENr%2BPQq8DCuUBcuZOL37QD2ByypNiu0rx3MagvTOY0zxDjg%40mail.gmail.com.
