From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Aug 20 21:06:03 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6BD0C1065697 for ; Fri, 20 Aug 2010 21:06:03 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bakul@bitblocks.com) Received: from mail.bitblocks.com (mail.bitblocks.com [64.142.15.60]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4AD988FC0C for ; Fri, 20 Aug 2010 21:06:03 +0000 (UTC) Received: from bitblocks.com (localhost.bitblocks.com [127.0.0.1]) by mail.bitblocks.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id A416A5B91; Fri, 20 Aug 2010 14:06:02 -0700 (PDT) To: =?utf-8?Q?Dag-Erling_Sm=C3=B8rgrav?= In-reply-to: Your message of "Fri, 20 Aug 2010 21:33:08 +0200." <86vd75dqq3.fsf@ds4.des.no> References: <4C6505A4.9060203@FreeBSD.org> <4C650B75.3020800@FreeBSD.org> <4C651192.9020403@FreeBSD.org> <4C673898.2080609@FreeBSD.org> <20100818134341.GA88861@johnny.reilly.home> <86vd75dqq3.fsf@ds4.des.no> Comments: In-reply-to =?utf-8?Q?Dag-Erling_Sm=C3=B8rgrav?= message dated "Fri, 20 Aug 2010 21:33:08 +0200." Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2010 14:06:02 -0700 From: Bakul Shah Message-Id: <20100820210602.A416A5B91@mail.bitblocks.com> Cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Interpreted language(s) in the base X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2010 21:06:03 -0000 On Fri, 20 Aug 2010 21:33:08 +0200 =?utf-8?Q?Dag-Erling_Sm=C3=B8rgrav?= wrote: > "C. P. Ghost" 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]