On Thu, Dec 11, 2008 at 3:44 PM, Randall R Schulz <rsch...@sonic.net> wrote:
>
> Punctuation is not syntax.
>> Clojure goes on to add a lot of syntax. The literal syntax for
>> vectors [], maps {}, sets #{}, functions #(), keywords :, etc. are
>> all syntax, not possible with macros, and then there are all the
>> "reader macros" that are listed in Section 2.2, Comment ;, Deref @,
>> Meta ^, Metadata #^, regex #"", syntax-quote `, unquote ~,
>> unquote-splicing ~@, and var-quote #'.
>
> All these things are syntactic sugar. Shorthand ways to write things
> that have vanilla S-Expression counterparts. Again, I would not call
> them syntax.
I really have trouble understanding the idea that punctuation and
syntactic sugar shouldn't be considered syntax. To me, syntax is
anything that a human reader has to comprehend in order to understand
the structure of the code. I say "structure" because that excludes
having to understand what every function and macro does.
For example, it is very important for human readers of Clojure code to
understand that ^# adds the metadata that follows to the form that
follows that.
--
R. Mark Volkmann
Object Computing, Inc.
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