From ...
From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.no>
Subject: Re: Summary of Dangling Closing Parentheses vs. Stacked Closing Parentheses
Date: 2000/03/28
Message-ID: <3163239343709562@naggum.no>#1/1
X-Deja-AN: 603460072
References: <38DBE821.F64C2B22@genworks.com> <38DE1648.A4AFA073@iname.com> <8bneid$6s8$2@ssauraaa-i-1.production.compuserve.com> <m3k8iofapg.fsf@world.std.com> <8boqbu$9j5$1@ssauraac-i-1.production.compuserve.com>
mail-copies-to: never
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
X-Complaints-To: newsmaster@eunet.no
X-Trace: oslo-nntp.eunet.no 954260433 18664 195.0.192.66 (28 Mar 2000 16:20:33 GMT)
Organization: Naggum Software; vox: +47 8800 8879; fax: +47 8800 8601; http://www.naggum.no
User-Agent: Gnus/5.0803 (Gnus v5.8.3) Emacs/20.5
Mime-Version: 1.0
NNTP-Posting-Date: 28 Mar 2000 16:20:33 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp

* Anthony Cartmell
| The "Lisp" code I write in ICAD is much more like C/C++ in that we
| construct long relatively-shallow list structures.  Thus adding code is
| mostly inserting into lists, and dangling parens are useful and don't
| occur in long sequences (perhaps three or four closes maximum in a row).

  you have previously given an example like this:

(list a
      (list b c d)
      (list 0
            (list e f g
                  (list h))))

  I didn't understand why you did this, as I would typically have written
  it very differently, and much more compactly:

`(,a (,b ,c ,d) (0 (,e ,f ,g (,h))))

  for what it's worth, I don't think editing this structure is hard, even
  in vi-clones, which do sport the % command to move to the other paren.

  on the other hand, I think a fair summary of the situation is that as you
  grow used to Lisp and the parens lose importance and "disappear", you
  seek tools that help you reduce the importance of the parens, too.

#:Erik