Re: Lightweight syntax: a dissident view

[Pierre-Yves Gérardy <pygy79@...>]

On Sat, Nov 27, 2010 at 02:22, Mark Hamburg <mark@grubmah.com> wrote:
>>    concat = |:a||:b||:c: print(a.." "..b.." "..c.."!") :|:|:|
>
> I think this probably lends credence to everyone who yells "line noise!"

If by noise, you mean that the syntax obfuscates the meaning, I
disagree. The parameters are clearly visible without any space around
them, it's obvious that we're creating three nested functions,, and
the three closing tokens are unmissable too.

compare with

    concat = function (a)
        return function (b)
            return function (c)
                print( a.." "..b.." "..c.."!" )
            end
        end
    end

If the former is line noise, the latter is surface sludge. The SNR is
much higher above. In the second case, the function/return keywords
dominate.

-- Pierre-Yves