Re: Instead of pcase

[chad <yandros@gmail.com>]

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On Mon, Dec 4, 2023 at 9:59 PM Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> wrote:

>   > > confusing.  I know what dotted pairs mean, but I was not sure what
>   > > they meant in pcase patterns.
>
>   > They don't mean anything.  It's pure lisp syntax.
>
> I explained why I found it hard to understand that example.
>
> Your response to my explanation is to argue with it. [...]
>

I understand your point, and I don't disagree, but I do see another
viewpoint that also makes sense to me: that the misunderstanding is not in
the place that is being discussed. (In other words, that this is largely an
issue of mis-communication.)

The particular point that *I think* was being expressed but not effectively
communicated is this:

The example was cited as a place where pcase's use of special syntax lead
to confusion, but this the example doesn't use any special pcase syntax.
This doesn't remove the problem, but if it's correct, then it suggests that
the problem is perhaps more accurately described as "pcase makes some
experienced Lisp programmers so unsure about special syntax that they worry
it might be present where it is not". This could be a general problem with
any programming language, but is perhaps especially relevant to Lisp.

Coming back to the particular potential disagreement:

> I explained why I found it hard to understand that example.
>
> Your response to my explanation is to argue with it.

I *suspect* that the "argument* you see is not an attempt to tell you that
your explanation is wrong, but rather to suggest that the misunderstanding
might not be where you thought it was. (You are certainly correct that the
example was hard for you to understand, but you may or may not be correct
about the reasons.)

I hope that helps,
~Chad

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