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1 point by hasenj 5103 days ago | link | parent

I agree with the first part.

but:

> `((,a b) (,c d)) ;evaluate keys, not values, in assoc-list > ((a ,b) (c ,d)) ;evaluate values, not keys, in assoc-list

or, or ..

  ((a 'b) (c 'd))
  (('a b) ('c d))
Granted, this uses quote symbols too.

My point was finding ways to lessen the need for ` and ,

If [] wasn't already used for lambdas, I could've suggested using it as a raw-list literal. [1 2 3] wouldn't be that bad.

It's possible to use other symbols, like @[1 2 3] where '@[' is a single token, or @(1 2 3).

> Philosophical digression: (...) You could implement data structures as functions

Saw that in SICP :)



2 points by fallintothis 5103 days ago | link

  ((a 'b) (c 'd))
  (('a b) ('c d))
I just noticed none of your alist examples work with the atoms-imply-lists thing -- unless you ditch list-indexing, like (xs 0). That is, even if a, b, c, and d are all atoms,

  ((a b) (c d))
would not be an explicit alist, since

  (a b) == (list a b)
and

  (c d) == (list c d)
Thus,

  ((a b) (c d)) == ((list a b) (list c d))
which throws an error since (list c d) isn't a proper index (i.e., isn't a number).

Even if you could write alists that way, you'd be restricted to only those with atom cars. Personally, I can't think of the last time I needed a literal alist. If I wanted to write them that much, couldn't use quote, and couldn't bare to use list, I'd probably just do

  (def assoc-list args (pair args))

  arc> (assoc-list 'a 1 'b 2)
  ((a 1) (b 2))
and do away with complicating evaluation rules in such fragile ways.

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1 point by rocketnia 5103 days ago | link

If [] wasn't already used for lambdas, I could've suggested using it as a raw-list literal. [1 2 3] wouldn't be that bad.

I don't think odd parentheses like [...] are substantially more convenient than operator applications like (list ...). In fact, when editing in a bare-bones text editor, it's a slight pain to have to figure out whether )))]))]))) is the right combination of brackets. :-p

That doesn't mean it's a bad idea altogether. I think Clojure probably has the best practical use of brackets. It uses [] for literal lists just like what you're talking about, but it also generally uses [] brackets wherever there's no operator-and-body format that needs highlighting and indenting. They're used for argument lists, for instance. I haven't heard of someone setting up an editor to take advantage of that consistency, but I'd be surprised if that wasn't the reason for it. ^_^

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2 points by hasenj 5103 days ago | link

> ))]))])))

One of the ideas lurking in my head was a symbol to close all open parenthesis

For example, assuming [] isn't used for anything:

  (def fun (args)
    (a (b (c (d)))))
would be written as:

  (def fun (args)
    (a (b (c (d))]
where ] would tell the interpreter to close everything. Or maybe just close the nearest open parenthesis that's at the beginning of a line.

Granted, something like (a (b (c (d] looks a bit odd, but this looks less odd:

  (a (b (c (d (e (f (g (h)))]
And you'll be able to insert stuff in the middle without having to remember to balance parenthesis at the end:

  (a (b (c (d (x y) (z (e (f (g (h)))]

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1 point by rocketnia 5103 days ago | link

Didn't pg talk about this use of ] in one of the early posts on Arc?

I shy away from it only 'cause it reduces the number of editors which can make sense of the brackets.

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1 point by akkartik 5103 days ago | link

(Which is reason against PLT's use of [], but doesn't affect arc's chosen use.)

Incidentally [] has one major advantage over (): it doesn't require pressing the shift key every single time. In my vim and emacs I've swapped the two sets of keys in lisp mode.

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2 points by rocketnia 5103 days ago | link

Which is reason against PLT's use of [], but doesn't affect arc's chosen use.

Hmm? I don't provide any reasons against Racket's claim that "Using square brackets in a few key places makes Racket code even more readable." In fact, I think it does aid a bit in readability, but it doesn't help when my goal is to correct sloppy brackets. XD

What I am saying is that Arc's [+ 1 _] syntax is about as convenient as (f- + 1 _) or (f-:+ 1 _). Arc also shares the ))]))) issue, a little. It would be more noticeable if more operators accepted functions as their last argument rather than their first argument.

Incidentally [] has one major advantage over (): it doesn't require pressing the shift key every single time. In my vim and emacs I've swapped the two sets of keys in lisp mode.

You mentioned this a while ago, so I've been using only [] in my languages-in-progress. ^_^ It also helps that I begrudge () and {} for looking too similar to each other. :-p The one thing I'm worried about is that ] and [ might be less distinguishable from each other than ) and ( are.

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1 point by akkartik 5103 days ago | link

It would be more noticeable if more operators accepted functions as their last argument rather than their first argument.

Yeah, but they don't. Lisp idiom tends to be to put the values being operated upon last, and with good reason: you want to put last the arg most likely to be a temporary. Otherwise you risk separating function calls from their args. Compare:

  (some-function
     (some-verbose-computation
       ...
       ...)
     arg2 arg3)
with:

  (some-function arg2 arg3
    (some-verbose-computation
      ...))
Since there's this major structural constraint I think any dispatch in lisp should be on the type of the last arg. (http://arclanguage.org/item?id=12646)

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