n00b question: Why is [1 2 3] idiomatic and not '(1 2 3) ? Is it a vectors vs. lists thing, notation thing, or something else?
I don't have a lisp background so there's a truckload of lisp reading I still want to do which may answer questions like these for me. If there's a particular text on what would help a person discern idiomatic vs. not, in clojure, I'd be happy to put that on my "list" '(ha ha). :P Ryan On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 9:50 AM, Meikel Brandmeyer <m...@kotka.de> wrote: > Hi, > > On Jul 2, 12:18 pm, Walter van der Laan <waltervanderl...@gmail.com> > wrote: > >> For example you can point your browser >> athttp://getclojure.org:8080/examples/reduce >> for reduce examples. > > Is it necessary to have >250 examples for a function which has > effectively five variations? > > (reduce + []) > (reduce + [1]) > (reduce + [1 2 3]) > (reduce + 0 []) > (reduce + 0 [1 2 3]) > > Then there are examples like this one: > (reduce '* '(1 2 3)) > > Someone who is new to Clojure and tries to understand reduce... Does > he understand why the result is 3? A result which relies on a not very > well-known fact, that you can actually call symbols like keywords for > map lookup with up to two arguments. (I bet there quite a few of > "seasoned" clojurians who didn't know that) I - if I was a newbie to > the language - would mainly think: wtf? Additionally the particular > example above doesn't even make sense. > > I'm all for examples, but please: clear examples focusing on the thing > being demonstrated. Symbol calling or showing that [1 2 3] and (list 1 > 2 3) can be interchanged in the example above are nice to know, but > don't help to understand reduce itself. They should go to their own > sections in a tutorial. > > The 0.02€ of a guy who has not put effort in creating examples for the > core API. > > Sincerely > Meikel > > PS: I also think the examples should demonstrate idiomatic clojure. [1 > 2 3] is idiomatic while '(1 2 3) is not. Whatever we put in examples > will show up in code. So be it [] vs. '() or (.java interop) vs. (. > interop (java)) - we should pay attention! > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "Clojure" group. > To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com > Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with your > first post. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Clojure" group. To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with your first post. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en
