Re: Using #true and #false everywhere?

[Robin Templeton <robin@terpri.org>]

Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> writes:

> Hello Guix!
>
> As discussed on IRC recently, several of us think that using “#true” and
> “#false” instead of “#t” and “#f” throughout or documentation and code
> would probably make it easier for newcomers to decipher that.
>
> WDYT?
>
> This syntax is supported since Guile 2.0.  ‘write’ still uses the
> abbreviations, but the good thing is that it means we can change all of
> gnu/packages without triggering a single rebuild.
>
> As for the manual, I’m afraid it’ll make every msgid that contains
> @code{#t} stale.  So maybe now’s not a good time to make this change?
>
> Thoughts?

I like the bikeshed color just as it is ;-) It's not obvious to me that
the "#t"/"#f" syntax is actually more confusing than "#true"/"#false"
for newcomers, and many users would need to learn both ways to write
boolean constants anyway. It may be *more* confusing to newcomers who
know pre-R7RS Scheme, or who refer to external documentation that uses
the shorter names, including the Guile reference manual, existing web
pages about Guix, pre-R7RS Scheme tutorials, etc.