Re: What?

[Rob Myers <address@hidden>]

On Sunday, Aug 18, 2002, at 07:21PM, Jason Trenouth <jason.trenouth@bigfoot.com> wrote:

>Mainstream programmers find the Java version less "busy" because it contains
>fewer punctuation symbols that seem to be shouting at them (~ 50% less in
>this example) . Of course, you get used to it and these visual cues are very
>useful, but the first impression can be one of fussy clutter.

I agree. this was certainly my first impression of Dylan and I now find the cues very useful. 

The Dylan example you give can be simplified:

define method sum-stream ( stream)
  let = 0;
  let = #f;
  while ( n := read-line( stream ) )
    sum := sum + string-to-integer( n );
  end;
  sum
end method;

Regarding a more mainstream syntax, imagine the howls if Apple had done Lisp in C syntax. Anybody remember the proposal for C-syntax Objective-C? :-)


- Rob.