Re: About Emacs Modernisation Project

[Pascal J. Bourguignon]

LanX <lanx.perl@googlemail.com> writes:

>> This feature is called "homoiconicity".
>
> I understand your point, but IMHO for most  code users write,  they
> don't need to eval code at runtime (which all script languages I know
> can do BTW)
>
> I have not doubt that it is a castration of LISP's possibilities to
> allow  users to write
>
>    function( [1,2,3], {k=>v})
>
> which is then translated to
>
>    (function '(1 2 3) (k . v) )
>
> before compilation.
>
> IMHO this plus some flow control already covers everything most users
> ever want.

Do you realize that lisp is actually a very small core language?
(eval fits on a single page).

All the rest, the lisp programming language you _use_ is not this core
lisp, it's only _MACROS_!  And for them it is essential to have
homoiconicity.

Even if you don't write macros yourself you are constantly using them.

Since (k . v) is not a form, what you call 'function' above MUST be a macro!


-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__                     http://www.informatimago.com/