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Re: succinctness = power



Neel Krishnaswami wrote:
> 
>...
> 
> Dylan has a semantics that's basically OO Scheme, and in it <vector>
> and <list> are subclasses of the <sequence> type.  So you can write
> easily write functions that work on both <vector> and <list> by using
> the operations that work on <sequence>.  This doesn't make it any
> harder to write reliable or succint code -- in fact, it makes both
> easier. (I don't know enough C++ or Perl to comment about your other
> examples.)

Python uses a similar solution. I think the Scheme decision is also
valid because it simplifies the language, which is important for that
particular language. My point is that it is no sin to choose some other
factor (e.g. simplicity) over succinctness. High level languages exist
for a variety of reasons, not just to reduce the token/line count.

 Paul Prescod