Re:Why Lisp is a Big Hack and Haskell is Doomed to Succeed (...
by iopq on Sunday March 30, 2014 @10:16PM
(#7499149)
No, lisp doesn't allow you to specify your own syntax. You can't just start writing stuff without parens and define what that parses to later.
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Re:Why Lisp is a Big Hack and Haskell is Doomed to Succeed (...
by taeric on Sunday March 30, 2014 @11:39PM
(#7499472)
You'd be somewhat surprised on that point. Especially if you just take it such that everything is just trying to build up an s-expression. While the homoiconicity of the language is incredibly cool for macros and whatnot, I don't think you strictly need it. Especially not at the top level. (That is, if you made a language that "compiled" down to s-expressions, what is missing?)
At the extreme end, take a look at Dylan.
Though, I was really referring to your other points. It seemed every one of your "questions" is directly addressed.
Re:Why Lisp is a Big Hack and Haskell is Doomed to Succeed (...
by mcv on Monday March 31, 2014 @10:42AM
(#7501720)
But everybody defining their own syntax would not make a language "the perfect language". Quite the opposite, because nobody would be able to understand each other's code anymore. It would be the ultimate fragmented language.
And because of that, I don't think a perfect language is even theoretically possible. Everybody has their own syntactical preferences, and allowing all of them means fragmentation.
Re:Why Lisp is a Big Hack and Haskell is Doomed to Succeed (...
by xenophonf on Monday March 31, 2014 @04:11AM
(#7500266)
Yes, it does. Look for "reader macros" in the Common Lisp spec, do a search for "lisp infix notation", etc.
Re:Why Lisp is a Big Hack and Haskell is Doomed to Succeed (...
by calibraxis on Monday March 31, 2014 @03:54AM
(#7500224)
How do you evaluate Common Lisp's reader macros?