(How to Write a (Lisp) Interpreter (In Python)) (2010)

Post by jimmypk » Sun, Jun 21, 2026, 5:58 PM UTC

bananaflag wrote: post #9

stdatomic wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First day of paradigms course in the 2000s and prof says "if your opinion of Scheme is too many parentheses, then you're an idiot." Needless to say that was my opinion and every day I think, more and more, how right he was. (later I did make some gui apps that included scripting and chose s-expr syntax because of how simple it is to implement it)

There are two problems with Lisp parentheses in my opinion: 1) Humans are not that equipped to handle that level of nesting without some other aid, this is why Lisp code is usually indented. 2) Parentheses aren't just about grouping, and this is unintuitive. For example, x is not the same as (x). This is a bit like in set theory where x is not the same as {x}, but parentheses do not look like the kind of sign that wo…

Post by Jtsummers » Sun, Jun 21, 2026, 6:05 PM UTC

timonoko wrote: post #33

?

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Jun 21, 2026, 6:11 PM UTC

[deleted] wrote: post #35

Jtsummers wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did you replace your very similar comment with "--" just to post essentially the same thing again?

[deleted]

Post by timonoko » Sun, Jun 21, 2026, 6:22 PM UTC

Post by NooneAtAll3 » Sun, Jun 21, 2026, 6:39 PM UTC

phpnode wrote: post #11

NooneAtAll3 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

main problem isn't brackets themselves - it's that they're too on the right had brackets been displayed as curly braces in C - everything would look much more manageable

so, instead of (foo (bar (1 2 3)) you'd prefer { foo { bar { 1 2 3 } } } is that right?

    ( aar
      (bar1 1 2 3)
      (bar2 1 2 3)
      (bar3 
         (car1 2 3)
         (car2)
         (car3)
      )
    )