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Re: C# is not Dylan (was: Re: C# : The new language from M$)
"Scott McKay" <swm@mediaone.net> writes:
> I implemented Lisp and Lisp environments for 12 years. I worked on
> Dylan for 5 years. I'm back to using Lisp again. Guess what? I like
> Dylan better, syntax and all.
if it's okay, and you feel you can expound on this (i.e. if you can
point out things in the syntactic differences), plesae do. I know that I
was averse to Dylan's syntax. But I also know the following:
when people know and love and understand something -- whatever that
something may be -- and then make a serious change (like Lisp->Dylan),
it's always hard to go back. I think I wrote a post about his
phenomenon not too long ago. Basically, it's always hard to go back to
something that breaking away from was work. It's the same thing that
makes it hard for me to live in Long Island after growing up very
sheltered and struggling to live in my own in Boston.
Of course, for me it was Pascal -> Common Lisp, and so going back to
that is hard for me. It's really all about what you see and when you
see it. I try to look at these things with as open a mind as I can, and
I simply cannot for the life of me see how the Dylan syntax is more
sensible. I'm not counter-arguing; I just want to know details -- that
is, if you feel you can do it justice. Admittedly, I have only a
cursory understanding of Dylan syntax, and so the best I can do is say
"I just don't like it as much" or something useless like that. I do
think that Dylan syntax bites, at least for me. Syntax is _extremely_
important to many programmers because there are many times when several
languages are "equivalent" in many respects, and so in the end it comes
down to which one's syntax one is most comfortable with.
Since you have lots of experience with both languages, would you agree
that the CL syntax is more expressive? more malleable? More uniform?
I would, but if you feel otherwise, I'd like to know why.
dave
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