Subject: Re: Why lisp failed in the marketplace
From: rpw3@rigden.engr.sgi.com (Rob Warnock)
Date: 1997/02/27
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp,comp.lang.scheme
Message-ID: <5f3ejh$hbq@tokyo.engr.sgi.com>

Richard A. O'Keefe <ok@goanna.cs.rmit.edu.au> wrote:
+---------------
| > prefix notation is hell for me.  I'll get a complex expression down
| > perfect and then remember I have to divide the whole thing by two, which
| > is usually the start of a cursor nightmare.
| 
| Hmm.
| 	"(/ " Forward-S-Expression " 2)"
| In the editor I use, 9 keystrokes.
+---------------

And even in raw "vi", it's only 12 keystrokes: "i(/ <ESC>" to put the front
part on, " %" to step over the S-expression, and "i 2)<ESC>" for the rest.

(Or only 11 if you do it the counter-intuitive [to me] way and insert
"/ (" *after* the opening paren of the old S-expr.)

+---------------
| If I have a complex expression in C, that needs dividing, it's
| 	"(" <hairy cursor nightmare> ")/2"
| because there isn't a key meaning "forward over C expression".
+---------------

Indeed!


-Rob

-----
Rob Warnock, 7L-551		rpw3@sgi.com
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