Re: sweet-expressions are not homoiconic
Alexey Radul 27 May 2013 16:27 UTC
On Mon, May 27, 2013 at 9:55 AM, David A. Wheeler <xxxxxx@dwheeler.com> wrote:
> Alexey Radul <xxxxxx@mit.edu> wrote:
>> Then I strongly recommend you try [Paredit]...
>
> Okay, I'll give Paredit a whirl.
>
>> ... May I suggest writing an Emacs mode for
>> sweet-expressions as a fitting project for learning Paredit?
>
> I'm hoping someone else will pick up the "write an emacs mode" part;
> I don't have unlimited time, and I expect serious emacs mode
> creation to take time. But I can certainly sit down
> and try fiddling with Paredit.
That's all I ask :)
> Hopefully [Paredit] mode won't launch me into a dystopian world where I have
> to eat snot for breakfast :-).
They say that ignorance is bliss...
>> > An editor can help you when you're *typing*, but it's far less helpful when *reading*
>> > the code.
>>
>> I'm actually not sure I agree with that. Navigating to the definition
>> of an item one is looking at is extremely helpful when reading code,
>
> Agreed, but you then have to move the cursor to what you're looking at.
> My eyes can move faster than my hands.
Only when the thing you want is already on the screen.
>> In practice, of course, I mainly use the indentation to group what I'm
>> reading, and rely on show-paren-mode and s-expression navigation
>> commands as reading aids only when the indentation is not sufficiently clear.
>
> In sweet-expressions the indentation should be clear to start with, since
> it's actually *used*.
Oh, I was referring to expressions indented perfectly according to style
that are still complex enough not to pop out. It's nice to be able to
inspect the real parse tree in a non-intrusive way.
~Alexey