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Comment by musicale

> I have never really understood people‘s aversion to parentheses

A common refrain from Lisp family language enthusiasts. (Personally I prefer Smalltalk-style "conversational" syntax to Lisp-style or C-style syntax, yet it's similarly unpopular.)

For better or for worse, the vast majority of programmers seem to have voted with their feet for C-style syntax (C/C++/Java/JavaScript/etc.) and its variants (Python). In a C/C++/Java/JavaScript world, C syntax has a fair amount of leverage.

It's a shame that Dylan didn't continue, as it seems to have taken a decent crack at adding algebraic syntax to Common Lisp - arguably realizing McCarthy's original vision of infix M-expressions as a more programmer-friendly syntax. I wonder how hard it would be to add a Dylan-style syntax layer to modern CL?

Be that as it may, one can readily write Lisp/Scheme-style programs in JavaScript. See Crockford's "The Little JavaScripter."[1] The major omission/deficiency being macros for JavaScript syntax.

[1] https://www.crockford.com/little.html

parent musicale 4 years ago

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