Earlier I said:
> I can't believe I'm proposing another change to curly-infix, that's been put
> in stone for ages. But after fiddling with curly-infix, I have a new idea
> for handling one and two parameters (3+ parameters are unchanged).
...
> We might make "normal" use of curly-infix more consistent if we interpreted:
> * Two-parameter {X Y} maps to (X Y).
> * One-parameter {X} maps to X - note that there is NO list.
The more I look at this, the more I like it.
It turns out this has other benefits too. It means that if someone uses
neoteric-expressions but uses e{FIRST SECOND}, they're the same as e(FIRST
SECOND) which is almost certainly what was intended, e.g.:
f{- x} maps to (f (- x)). You can do that already with f(- x), but I can
easily imagine someone using curly braces accidentally instead.
In short, this change along with the zero-length changes I recommended earlier
would mean that neoteric-expressions with short parameter lists would do what
users probably expect:
* f{} maps to (f)
* f{a} maps to (f a)
* f{a b} maps to (f (a b))
and that might eliminate a lot of bugs.
Examples:
* {-{a} / -{b}} maps to (/ (- a) (- b))
* f{- a} maps to (f (- a))
* {{+ a} * {- b}} maps to (* (+ a) (- b))
And again, it means that {SYMBOL} is a perfectly good - and less clunky -
escape mechanism for the special sweet-expression symbols. So you could use
{!}(5) at the beginning of the line if you insist on using "!" as the name for
the factorial.
I think of "nfx ..." as a mechanism for handling precedence, to arbitrate
between different symbols. But on short lists, it makes no sense to
arbitrate.. better to have a fixed meaning built into the reader, if they make
sense (and I think these do).
I would call these "short" curly-infix lists. Here's some new text, just
before "Other infix lists..." in the [Solutions] text on curly-infix:
"An {} maps to (), {e} maps to e, and {e f} maps to (e f)."
--- David A. Wheeler
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