Re: C# is not Dylan (was: Re: C# : The new language from M$)

To: info-dylan@ai.mit.edu
Subject: Re: C# is not Dylan (was: Re: C# : The new language from M$)
From: neelk@brick.cswv.com (Neel Krishnaswami)
Date: Sat, 1 Jul 2000 17:45:03 -0400 (EDT)
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Xref: traf.lcs.mit.edu comp.lang.lisp:54123 comp.lang.dylan:12314

Paul F. Dietz <dietz@interaccess.com> wrote:
> Neel Krishnaswami wrote:
> >
> > But Common Lisp has a set of features Dylan doesn't. Reader macros,
> > compiler macros, and the ability to do computation at macro
> > expansion time. Dylan's macros are very close to Scheme's; they are
> > a hygienic pattern-expansion mechanism (plus a feature to
> > deliberately break hygiene).
> 
> I was interested in Dylan, but this makes me much less interested.
> I use the power of CL's macros all the time.

There's no shame in not liking Dylan, of course, but I still think
it's very much worth trying out.

Personally, I think much of the use of macros in Lisp is to avoid
using higher-order functions, or to work around non-generic functions
in the CL spec. These are both more natural in Dylan. I don't want to
over-sell, though: if you are writing something like Screamer, then CL
is the only thing that can do it.

Neel

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