Re: newbie: m-expressions

"falcon" <shahbazc@xxxxxxxxx> writes:

> Now I can parse my language and translate it to Lisp...but if there is
> a well thought-out standard way of doing it (I hoped M-Expressions were
> it) then it makes it easier for me.

Via Lemonoder:

http://www.jroller.com/page/trasukg/20050419#while_writing_yaql_i_accidentally

You might find it interesting. As I understand Lisp history, the
short version is that the S-expresion syntax was used to work out the
parse trees in lei of developing an M-expression syntax for production
use. The problem was, the S-exp syntax was so nice and also highly
amenable to macros (something no other language has done yet, so far
as I know) that the Lispers came to love it and stuck with it.

I find it an amusing irony that the dreaded parenthesis of Lisp are
the enabler of its awesome power.

--
An ideal world is left as an excercise to the reader.
--- Paul Graham, On Lisp 8.1
No excuses. No apologies. Just do it.
--- Erik Naggum
.

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