Re: [Readable-discuss] General infix comments

[Egil Möller]

Title: FreeCode Signature

(let ((a 1)) (cond ((null a) 0) (t 1))) has a lot of brackets, in my opinion too many, since it could have been (let (a 1) (cond (null a) 0 t 1)) which is also s-_expression_. However, I've got bad feelings changing basic forms like that. When I wrote sugar/I-expressions, I realized the need for having a list as the first item in another list, but that it was only used in let. As it requires a quirk in the syntax (the introduction of "group"), I came to dislike let as it looked ugly in I-expressions. let     group        foo 1        bar (+ 4 5)     * foo bar It would be trivial to introduce a new macro  := that only allows one assignment, and has the form (:= (variable value) _expression_), which would result in the following I-_expression_ for the above code: :=     foo 1     :=         bar (+ 4 5)         * foo bar which is actually even ugglier! What I would like, but what would be hard to get, is := (foo 1) := (bar (+ 4 5) * foo bar The problem is, how do you rewrite this into the above? If we introduced read-macros into the I-_expression_ reader, this could be done; := would be a reader macro that called readblocks for the same indentation level, consuming everything up until the end of the current block as if it was a sub-block of :=. Another solution would be to overload eval, so that it handled arguments that where (:= something something) in a special way prior to any other parameter evaluation. ~dreaming on~ /Egil -- Konsulent, Fri Programvare / Free Software Consultant Cell: +47 - 91 17 05 93 Phone: +47 - 21 53 69 00, Fax: +47 - 21 53 69 09 Addr: Slemdalsveien 70, PB 1 Vinderen, 0319 Oslo Free beer costs nothing, freedom costs a fight. Free beer lasts an eavening, freedom lasts a lifetime.

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