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masak / alma

ALgoloid with MAcros -- a language with Algol-family syntax where macros take center stage
Artistic License 2.0
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Relate/react in some way to this talk by David Moon #500

Open masak opened 5 years ago

masak commented 5 years ago

Through this lambda-the-ultimate comment I found these slides. Step 1: read through them. Issue can be closed after that, but I suppose I'll have some response/reaction as well.

The title is "Genuine, Full-power, Hygienic Macro System for a Language with Syntax", for goodness sake!

eritain commented 5 years ago

A slide late in the deck links to this full-text exposition with bigger examples.

masak commented 5 years ago

I'm still gradually reacting to the whole language. There is so much in it that shares goals with Alma.

It's quite Dylan-like. But I think its macros are more general, and closer to Alma's.

I wish there was a runnable implementation of PLOT, but I see no trace of one. Does Mr. Moon run all those code examples in his head?

masak commented 5 years ago

Since I don't know where else to put this: David Moon believes S-expressions are a bad idea. (Search for "Dave Moon: S-expressions are a bad idea" in that document.)

"More generally, why should the language specification dictate the internal representation to be used by the compiler? That's just crazy!"

Also "Symbols are not the right representation of identifiers. [...] A symbol can be a convenient abbreviation, but in general an identifier needs to be a combination of a name and a lexical context." It's uncanny how he recapitulates the conclusions of 007/Alma.