Alan Manuel Gloria:
> Hello Readables,
>
> I propose that, in the 0.3 released spec, we reserve some symbols for
> future syntactic purposes, so that if ever we decide to add new
> syntactic stuff, we have a small pool we can use. Also, users of the
> syntax can avoid these symbols.
Good idea, I completely agree.
> For now, I think we can reasonably say that the following pool of
> one-character symbols are currently reserved pending finalization of
> the GROUP/SPLICE/SPLIT/ENLIST discussion.
>
> ~
> \
> .
>
> How about adding these to the pool?
>
> !
> $
OK I think. Historically some people had trouble with "$" (because it'd look
different in different locales) but I don't think that should interfere with
its use.
> Looking at my keyboard, the following are probably not good for syntax:
>
> @ - used by newer Guile's for explicit module access.
> # - common usage by most Lisp's for reader extensions/special syntax
> % - possibly interpreted as modulo (remainder) computation
> ^ - possibly interpreted as either exponentiation or XOR
> & - possibly interpreted as AND
> * - multiplication
> () - oh come on
> _ - useful for denoting dummy variables / unused arguments
> = - comparison
> + - addition
> | - possibly interpreted as OR, also Common Lisp special symbol syntax
> [] {} - oh come on
> : - empty keyword/nameless keyword
> / - division
> ? - empty keyword/nameless keyword in Cadence Skill.
> < > - comparison
>
> So - if $ and ! are used for something in some Lisp or Scheme or
> something, we might consider not adding them to the pool of things we
> would like to reserve.
I'm not sure how often % or ^ are actually *USED* that way in a Lisp-based
language. E.g., for modulo, we have:
Clojure: mod
Scheme: modulo, mod, mod0
Common Lisp: mod
So we might be able to reserve either/both of them as well.
> Note that these are entire symbols, not characters - they function as
> syntax only if they are followed by any whitespace (horizontal or
> vertical). So Arc's ~foo is safe since ~ by itself doesn't have a
> very special meaning there (arguably it makes it a little confusing,
> but still).
>
> (as an aside, back when I was in the Arc community, we redefined ~ by
> itself to be "not". Back then PG didn't pay any attention at all to
> the Arc community so I doubt if that redefinition got into mainline
> Arc)
--- David A. Wheeler
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