Re:What Made Lisp Different (2002)
by skybrian on Sunday February 18, 2018 @07:03PM
(#16409725)
- Phrases (space separated lists): a b (c d) e
- Comma-separated lists: a, b, (c, d), e
- Square-bracket lists: [a, b, c]
- Blocks (curly brackets and separated by newlines or semicolons):
{ a b; c d }
- Dotted lists, where sometimes the dots can be omitted:
foo.bar.baz
In combination, you can write something like:
for x in [1, 2, 3] {
foo.bar(x + 1, x * 2)
}
Which can be interpreted as 7 lists. The top-level list has five items, the last two of which are lists. The last list is a block containing one item, which is a three-item dotted list. The argument list after "bar" is a two-item comma list containing two phrases.
I've implemented this, but I'm not satisfied with it; the corner cases are tricky to understand.
- Comma-separated lists: a, b, (c, d), e
- Square-bracket lists: [a, b, c]
- Blocks (curly brackets and separated by newlines or semicolons): { a b; c d }
- Dotted lists, where sometimes the dots can be omitted: foo.bar.baz
In combination, you can write something like:
Which can be interpreted as 7 lists. The top-level list has five items, the last two of which are lists. The last list is a block containing one item, which is a three-item dotted list. The argument list after "bar" is a two-item comma list containing two phrases.I've implemented this, but I'm not satisfied with it; the corner cases are tricky to understand.