Are there some reliable sources which indicate that Perl and Lisp code are not usually read, debugged or fixed after the code has been initially written? Or is there a general consensus or verifiable data that fixing problems in Perl or Lisp code takes more time than fixing problems in code written in other languages?
I think both those languages definitely have a reputation, at the very least for being 'hard to read'...
"Failing miserably", as you put it, sounds like there is a clear and somewhat objectively measurable difference.
The ultimate point of my earlier post was that by an objective measure of syntax consistency, Lisp wins, but that this isn't necessarily a good measure. Most declarative languages are very consistent, with operators and so on often defined in the language itself, syntactically requiring few tokens but keywords, strings, and a handful of punctuation, with an escape mechanism for each. Vimscript, on the other hand, has multiple methods of escaping, tokens frequently mean different things in different contexts, etc.. It frustrates me at times, but I can see why, to an extent, it needs to be like that, particularly for interactive use of Ex commands. The thing is that, despite this, in the eyes of many, quite probably myself included, Vimscript is more readable than Lisp. You'd probably have to exclude the use of complicated regular expressions...
My opinion is that a familiar coding style and familiar language make code readable. And then also the programming style of not doing too much different things in a tiny part of code. Perl "fails miserably" with me because I still haven't had time to actually learn it. But I think it's me who fails.
Well, that's an interesting thought, isn't it? If you had no knowledge of either language, which do you think would be easier to understand? A piece of Vimscript, or a piece of Lisp, with similar functionality? Programming style can definitely make either unreadable. What if you assume good style? Is one easier? Ben. -- You received this message from the "vim_use" maillist. For more information, visit http://www.vim.org/maillist.php
