Re: Apology to Thomas Jericke (was Re: number, math, and metatable? [RANT])

[steve donovan <steve.j.donovan@...>]

On Mon, May 5, 2014 at 5:03 PM, Jay Carlson <nop@nop.com> wrote:
> I'm probably more on the side of the list criminals than the list police,
> but it's a lot more fun to talk about syntax changes when they're in running
> code.

Absolutely - it's the only way to know whether it's just a cute
occaisional shortcut or something you'll use all the time. And ML/LM
are the fastest way to get there. (I prefer LM because it's easier to
think of one-dimensional lexical streams than multi-dimensional AST
structures)

I mention Moonscript from time to time, and it's not because I want
everyone to use it. Moonscript is a good way to play with a Lua-based
language that brings in a lot of frequently-requested features (FRF?)
Since it's compiling to Lua, one has the familiar ecosystem available.

  - is it useful having a built-in class construct?
  - do compact function forms change the way we code?
  - do list/table comprehensions make code more compact and readable?
  - what are the implications of local-by-default?
  - string interpolation?
  - statements as expressions? (x = if a then b else c)
  - are switch statements more readable than if-else chains?

(The short answer: there's a lot more syntax involved, and some of
these aren't so important - I could personally live without built-in
classes, because you're then tied to a particular OOP model)

It's useful that these features are readily available, to anyone who
wants to play, since most of them really don't belong in Lua ;)