Re: XML as a transition to s-expr

[Paul Graham <address@hidden>]

> > 
> > I've found from experimenting with various syntactic tricks 
> > in Arc that it's actually a win if all the delimiters are 
> > parens.  It's a real nuisance to have expressions that end 
> > ))})]), because you can't tell if you've put the } in the
> > right place.
> > 
> 
> Emacs will match [] and {} as well as ().  Don't other editors?  I
> don't
> like the visual look of ))})]) but it's easier to grok some kinds of
> statements when you have multiple delimiters 

It's a lose in a couple ways.  When you're typing you have
to stop and think about whether you're closing off a { [ or (,
and when you change code you can't tell just by looking at it
whether it's still correct.  If you always use the same 
character for a delimiter, all you have to worry about is
whether you have the right number of them.

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