Subject: Re: LISP - The Challenge of Nested Macros
From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.no>
Date: 03 Sep 2002 13:28:03 +0000
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Message-ID: <3240048483968979@naggum.no>

* Dave Pearson
| Assuming you mean what I think you mean when you say "standard-language", my
| background is in languages that use the comma to separate arguments and
| other things and I've never had a problem switching from those languages, to
| Lisp, and back again. I'd be surprised to find that anyone has a problem
| with this after the first few moments.

  The problem with syntax is in the programmer's opiniated mind.  Suppose you
  were told that you had to write all of Common Lisp's multi-word symbol names
  without a hyphen, but instead with shifting the first letter of the word.
  Would you scream and shout and think this idiotic or would you adjust to the
  new requirement and keep going at what is more important to you, namely what
  you seek to accomplish with your software-writing skills and abilities?
  After all, it is only a question of which key to press between words, right?

  So, the real question is: at what point does syntax become more important
  than your real task?  To someone who has nothing whatsoever to accomplish,
  syntax can be arbitrarily important.

-- 
Erik Naggum, Oslo, Norway

Act from reason, and failure makes you rethink and study harder.
Act from faith, and failure makes you blame someone and push harder.