Subject: Re: RFC: Lisp/Scheme with less parentheses through Python-like significant indentation? From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net> Date: 2000/08/11 Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Message-ID: <3174983602960695@naggum.net> * Paul Fernhout <pdfernhout@kurtz-fernhout.com> | On a tangent, could it be that the reason for a lot of cut and paste | in Lisp is precisely because it is so hard to get all those | parentheses consistent or configured correctly for a specific | operation (when typing them in by hand)? There isn't "a lot of" cut and paste in Lisp, but _when_ you want to move or copy whole expressions, Emacs users double-click on one of the parentheses and the whole expression is instantly highlighted and ready for copy (at least under X -- Windows requires a lot more manual labor, as is usual). This is even used to see the whole expression better in a nested form. Also, when people need to move expressions around, they have tools in Emacs like transpose-sexp, which I suppose you would do with transpose-lines or something... I once said: "Those who do not know Lisp are doomed to reinvent it" in an Emacs setting. This is a Lisp setting, so maybe I should say: "Those who do not know Emacs are doomed to reinvent it". | I'd like to come to a full understanding of what exactly it is about | indentation that makes cut and paste in Lisp so awkward. Suppose you have an expression at indentation level N. Copy it to a place where indentation level M prevails. How much work do you need to do to get the indentation right? In a fully parenthesized Lisp, you have tools to do this for you. In a less parenthesized Lisp, you have no tools, but must shift the newly copied block of code right or left more or less by hand. #:Erik -- If this is not what you expected, please alter your expectations.