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From: k p c <kpc@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov>
Subject: Re: scsh in scm and Scheme gui's
In-Reply-To: bos@serpentine.com's message of 21 Dec 1995 16:28:11 -0800
Message-ID: <1995Dec22.221742.5589@ptolemy-ethernet.arc.nasa.gov>
To: bos@serpentine.com (Bryan O'Sullivan)
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Date: Fri, 22 Dec 1995 22:26:04 GMT

Quoth bos@serpentine.com (Bryan O'Sullivan):
> o> Contrary to the popular claim, people are *not* afraid of parens.

> hard to believe that people are still willing to make such an
> assertion in light of the treacle pace with which the Lisp industry

Is it parentheses that are the reason?  And if parentheses are the
reason, is the distaste for them shallow and wide, or deep and wide?

A hypothetical:

	o If Bill Gates were to say that he's releasing Lisp 95 with
	  Windows 95 tomorrow, writing new applications in it, and
	  offering it as an alternative macro language for his
	  applications, would people just ignore him?

	  Or would magazines tout the beauty of parentheses, offer
	  tutorials, and explain in detail why they are useful?

For my part, my distaste for non-parenthesis syntax turned me off of
Dylan and Java!  I'm probably weird about that, but it might not be
parentheses that does it.  It might be standards fragmentation (owing
perhaps to the ease of creating new dialects).  Or Bill Gates.  Or the
misconception that Lisp can't compile.  Or maybe even Lispers'
insecurity about paren acceptability.  Or some other reason.
 
If you post a followup to this article, I would appreciate a courtesy
verbatim copy by email to help work around potentially unreliable feeds.

----------
kpc@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov.  AI, multidisciplinary neuroethology, info filtering.
	what you sometimes hear			what it sometimes means
	-----------------------			-----------------------
	for your own good			for my own good
	for your protection			for my protection
	we as a society				people who share my values
	selfish					doesn't share my values
	unselfish				shares my values
	team player				obeys unquestioningly
