pathnames [Re: files, printers, etc. [Re: The feel of a Lisp

[Tomas Arvidsson]

alaric@abwillms.demon.co.uk wrote:

> > > You could write:
> > > (*employees* 'pictures #(picture of Lionel))

> > So what's the deal with this very un-lispish syntax? Why not do things
> > the way it's always been done...

> > (search-by-picture *employees* #(picture of Lionel))

> Those are source code. My syntax is designed as what the user types

Then who's your user? To me, a "user" will be you, me, anybody reading
this list or anyone else with an interest in Lisp or Lisp-like
languages/environments and thus someone who knows and expects "normal"
Lisp coding styles. If your "user" is someone else then small syntax
changes like this will not help much, if at all. It might even confuse
people (programmers) as this particular syntax will differ from what's
"normal" and expected. If your "user" is just anybody who has to use a
computer then you can forget about this altogether as he/she will not
go near anything without a fancy (G)UI that hides as much as possible
of this "low-level" stuff.

-- 
Tomas Arvidson         *** md94-tar@nada.kth.se * d91tar@csd.uu.se  ***
                       *** http://www.student.nada.kth.se/~md94-tar ***