Subject: Re: Common syntax [was: newbie in deep over his head]
From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net>
Date: Fri, 01 Mar 2002 19:49:00 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Message-ID: <3224000946175910@naggum.net>

* "Glenn Burnside" <glenn.burnside@ni.com>
| But obviously a little sugar is good - else why '#... for function, or '
| for list?

  One of the things I hope you will appreciate here is that people take
  some pains to be as precise as they can when they post, and that means
  that '# instead of #' is an annoyance.  ' does not mean list, it means
  quote.  'x does _not_ do the same as (list x), but (quote x).

| Do you think you could get by without that?

  You mean would I abstain from defining them if I wanted them?  No.  :)

| What if you had a Lisp environment that let you elevate the read macro
| kind of thing into the editor - where the editor let you specify how you
| want to view and type certain things, but the source file stored the
| actual forms?  Would that be worth anything?

  If you are not familiar with Emacs, yet, now is a good time to start.

///
-- 
  In a fight against something, the fight has value, victory has none.
  In a fight for something, the fight is a loss, victory merely relief.