Re: 10 problems with Elisp, part 10

[Emanuel Berg <incal@dataswamp.org>]

Abraham S.A.H." via "Emacs development discussions. wrote:

>> It doesn't take much experience to do cool things fast in
>> Python, it is a fact.
>
> I agree to disagree, Emanuel!  Sorry, but I do not think
> "Python is a generally better programming language".

Devel time faster than in Lisp, is what I'm saying.

Maybe one could have a Lisp that also was as fast or almost as
fast, if one focused on that aspect.

> However, as an Asian, I know no university in my country or
> neighbour countries teaching Lisp.

Even so.

>> No. Just think, remove this line in Lisp
>>
>> some-item))
>
> Why should  I?  Why should I  use `kill-line`?  Why not 
> removing that item with `kill-sexp`?

Indeed, be an excellent Emacs user, that is all it takes.

No, the syntax makes it harder and slower to edit for
everyone. More syntax errors, more typing.

One thing one could try is to replace boring, trivial stuff
with non-Lisp syntax.

For example setting up the interface. Here is one example from
my own code. (Note: Over one in five interfaces in the Emacs
source uses Lisp and not the `interactive' format string.)

  ;; ...
  (interactive (if (numberp current-prefix-arg)
                   (list current-prefix-arg)
                 current-prefix-arg))
  (unless end
    (setq end 73))
  (unless step
    (setq step (min 10 (max 2 (/ end 10)))))
  (unless i
    (setq i 0))
  (unless (and (numberp i)    (<= 0 i)
               (numberp end)  (<  0 end)
               (numberp step) (<  0 step))
    (error "Bogus indata"))

This is 402 chars!

But here is a 135-char solution that expresses the same:

[
  end  :range     0<   :default 73         :prefix-arg
  step :range-cut 2-10 :default (/ end 10)
  i    :range     0<=  :default 0
]

And here is a 88 char solution:

[
  end  :r  0<   :d 73         :pa
  step :rc 2-10 :d (/ end 10)
  i    :r  0<=  :d 0
]

Also with: :prompt-string (:ps), :doc-string (:ds) ...

That way, we could keep Lisps elegance and power for where
people cared about it, for example solving interesting
algorithmic problems and so on.

-- 
underground experts united
https://dataswamp.org/~incal