Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2010 14:06:02 -0700 From: Bakul Shah <bakul@bitblocks.com> To: =?utf-8?Q?Dag-Erling_Sm=C3=B8rgrav?= <des@des.no> Cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Interpreted language(s) in the base Message-ID: <20100820210602.A416A5B91@mail.bitblocks.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 20 Aug 2010 21:33:08 %2B0200." <86vd75dqq3.fsf@ds4.des.no> References: <4C6505A4.9060203@FreeBSD.org> <4C650B75.3020800@FreeBSD.org> <4C651192.9020403@FreeBSD.org> <i477eo$i4d$1@dough.gmane.org> <4C673898.2080609@FreeBSD.org> <AANLkTim_prShRiHkLnFbhek9%2Beaa-KaJ5oZtNo%2BLd0K1@mail.gmail.com> <alpine.BSF.2.00.1008152240370.66595@qbhto.arg> <20100818134341.GA88861@johnny.reilly.home> <AANLkTinHtzt=ELPvQBaaRBUzN-U88EXDMenZwrRsY3NL@mail.gmail.com> <86vd75dqq3.fsf@ds4.des.no>
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On Fri, 20 Aug 2010 21:33:08 +0200 =?utf-8?Q?Dag-Erling_Sm=C3=B8rgrav?= <des@des.no> wrote: > "C. P. Ghost" <cpghost@cordula.ws> writes: > > After all LISP-like syntax is *still* more common and prevalent > > than Lua, e.g. in Elisp, guile, esh, scsh and a lot of other apps > > that use it as a small language. So we can expect more users > > to be at least partially familiar with it. And there *are* lightweight > > MIT- or BSD-licensed scheme interpreters out there too: > > Considering that the majority of people who might be interested in using > this know *neither* Lisp *nor* Lua, my vote is for Lua, because people > who are familiar with neither will be more open to learning Lua, which > resembles other languages they already know, than Lisp, which doesn't. [Couldn't resist responding but my last message on this tangent] If you are "open to learning" a C like language, one can provide a C like frontend syntax to most of Scheme & to a degreee similar to lua. Like C/Lua etc. Scheme is also a block structured language. Apart from syntax, the key differences are: - everything is an expression. - variables are not typed (anything can be assigned to a var) - functions can be anonymous, nested and returned from other functions - symbols & lists are built-in unlike in C - no built-in structs, unions or ptrs - a very powerful macro facility - support for continuations ksm for instance implements a C like syntax. See http://square.umin.ac.jp/hchang/ksm/ref/ksm_13.html [Yes, I am aware of Dylan and what happened to it but still think this can be a useful effort]
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