Alan Manuel Gloria: > All right all right, let's use this thread to discuss GROUP, SPLICE, > SPLIT, and ENLIST.
Agree. By the way, thanks very much for creating this summary on the mailing list + the info on the Wiki. Nicely done + very helpful. ... > 1. NO to GROUP and SPLICE > > 2. YES to SPLIT, and use \ for it, and ignore other language's habit > of using it to mean "continue to next line" > > 3. YES to ENLIST, and use ~ for it, and really start to crystallize > what exactly is meant with ~ in various contexts. > Cons to my position: > > 1. Both SPLIT-by-itself and ENLIST-by-itself, followed by a line that > is more indented, mean exactly the same thing. This is arguably Not a > Good Thing, as there is now more than one way to express something, > neither being a truly "preferred" way. ... > 3. Using "\" for SPLIT is not compatible with most other language's > usage, especially when it occurs at end-of-line. 4. Using up two punctuation symbols. They're in short supply. 5. The "\" meaning is incompatible with its meaning in CL, and many other Lisps (including many Scheme implementations) also use this interpretation. We could implement both SPLIT and ENLIST, but I don't think that we really need the SPLIT char to work at the beginning of a line (after indent), and ENLIST could easily be limited to only apply at the beginning of a line (after indent). So here's another variant semantic that combines GROUP and SPLIT, let's call it "GRIT" :-). GRIT: - a proposed combination of GROUP and SPLIT, where a single SYMBOL is used. Semantics: 1. If SYMBOL is at the beginning of the line (after indent), and nothing else on the line (other than maybe space/tab/;-comment), then it creates a list without header using all children lines, like GROUP. 2. If SYMBOL is anywhere after the first datum on a line, it works like SPLIT. (What if it's the last one?) If something else follows on the line I'm not sure what it should be. It'd be good to focus on how to cleanly handle stuff like "let" since that seems to be a common case. It could be like ENLIST - force an extra list. Or, it could force a list in certain situations. Ideas? The obvious question is what "SYMBOL" should be. I'm wondering if ~ would be a better choice than \, since \ has a meaning in so many places. --- 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 Readable-discuss@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/readable-discuss
