> > 6. Proposal: Should ENTER ENTER no longer end an expression? I said: > > I don't like this one. The current behavior is to end expressions with > > ENTER ENTER, and I think this one is REALLY REALLY important. My earlier > > experiments without that showed that failure to support this was REALLY > > confusing. I think as long as comment-only lines (possibly preceded with > > indents) are completely ignored, and thus can be used to separate contents, > > we should be okay.
Alan Manuel Gloria said: > Agreed. Note that a slight modification of SPLICE rules allows the > REPL user to use ENTER BACKSLASH ENTER ... Still, ENTER ENTER is > easier to turn to a mental tic than ENTER BACKSLASH ENTER. > > Haskell solves this problem (it allows empty lines within expressions) > by restricting the REPL to one-liner expressions (as an extension GHC > has a special command to input multiline expressions, which are > terminated by } IIRC). But Haskell focuses on purity, so functions > cannot be practically redefined, and is primarily a file-centric > language; the habit is to put any long expressions you want to test as > functions in the file you are testing, and to modify those functions > in an editor and reload the file when you want to change them. Agreed, so Haskell isn't the best model here. Python solves this problem by allowing (essentially making) interactive processing *inconsistent* with file processing: http://docs.python.org/reference/lexical_analysis.html http://docs.python.org/py3k/reference/lexical_analysis.html#line-structure But since Lisps are often used both interactively and not, having this kind of inconsistency seems like a problem. If we warn on the first time someone enters indented data, while processing indented data, that should prevent the risk of silently misunderstood code. By the way, I think we should start focusing on specific points, and change the subject line so it identifies which point we're discussing. Then it'll be easier to follow the discussion...! --- David A. Wheeler ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ _______________________________________________ Readable-discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/readable-discuss
