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: Mon, 3 Jul 2000 21:45:02 -0400 (EDT)
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Xref: traf.lcs.mit.edu comp.lang.lisp:54206 comp.lang.dylan:12362

Jens Kilian <Jens_Kilian@agilent.com> wrote:
> "Michael T. Richter" <mtr@ottawa.com> writes:
> > That's the first time I've seen someone describe a profusion of parentheses
> > as "clean".
> 
> Hint: Write down a grammar for Lisp.  Write down a grammar for Dylan (or C,
> or C++, etc.).  Compare their sizes.

FTR, I disagree with Michael, but your response doesn't have the
answer you apparently think it does: Dylan is the smallest of all of
these -- Dylan plus its special forms is substantially less complex
than Common Lisp and its special forms.

Now to profit maximally from this observation, I recommend comparing
the two with a critical eye, keeping in mind that both languages were
designed by smart and knowledgeable people. I learned a lot from this
very exercise; the two languages are close enough in design space that
their differences reveal a lot about the fine structure of language
design. (Haskell vs.  ML is another good pairing. I haven't found
anything to compare Smalltalk to yet, though.)

Neel

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