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Regarding s-expressions, there are some perfectly reasonable alternatives ( http://chriswarbo.net/blog/2017-08-29-s_expressions.html )

For example:

https://docs.racket-lang.org/sweet/index.html

https://www.draketo.de/proj/wisp/

Although I prefer to embrace the s-expressions :)




Yeah, but that's not Racket (technically, the first one is, but it overrides the reader; the second is a Python-based transpiler of some syntax into S-exps) - it won't help someone new to the language, if only because it adds yet another dependency and mental conversion to keep in mind when reading examples and such. They're there if you want them, though.


Wisp seems to override the reader too (so no transpiler needed) https://www.draketo.de/proj/wisp/src/94bae1032ef07e441a942c5...

I agree about the extra dependency and indirection; although the syntaxes (syntaxen?) are equivalent, so examples can be translated automatically if copy/pasted.

> They're there if you want them, though.

Yep, although as I wrote on my blog:

"Whilst the parenthesis-heavy format of s-expressions is not necessary, it usually crops up in anything discussing Lisp and its derivatives, simply because it's much more popular than these alternatives. To me, that mostly indicates that concerns about "too many parentheses" are really a non-issue, despite being made by many who are new to the format."


Very well said, and a good post, BTW. I have something similar, from when I started working with Clojure: https://klibert.pl/posts/tools_for_lisp_syntax.html




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