Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!europa.asd.contel.com!emory!gatech!udel!haven.umd.edu!socrates.umd.edu!socrates!rockwell From: rockwell@socrates.umd.edu (Raul Rockwell) Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc Subject: Re: scheme [Re: What does an anti-perl look like] Message-ID: Date: 26 Jun 91 13:48:02 GMT References: <4582@optima.cs.arizona.edu> Sender: rockwell@socrates.umd.edu (Raul Rockwell) Organization: Traveller Lines: 19 In-Reply-To: gudeman@cs.arizona.edu's message of 26 Jun 91 07: 29:17 GMT David Gudeman: How can you say that syntax is unimportant when such a huge percentage of people who try lisp or scheme are turned off by the syntax? It is certainly important to them. It is a hindrance to the goal of getting more people to use the language, and it is a distraction for many people trying to use the language. Any language feature that is unpalatable to large numbers of people is a misfeature. And calling it "relatively unimportant" isn't going to make it any less important to the people who are bothered by it. I don't think that syntax is the big issue for people who don't like lisp or scheme. The big issues are more along the line of lack of decent reference works (something like the old MAC-Lisp manual would be nice -- very complete, to the point, and cheap). -- Raul