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0 pointssparkie12y ago0 comments

I'd say the real trouble is teaching any syntax at all to beginners, because their first language really taints them for life. Most people will think of successive languages in terms of their first, until they learn many and are able to think more generally.

Lisp has the advantage that it really teaches the general semantics of programming languages, because it's syntax is just the syntax tree, and it basically only has one form, which is function application. There's some "special forms" built into the implementation of a lisp to make it useful, but those shouldn't be confused with syntax. In fact, the parenthesis and space between function and arguments shouldn't be considered the lisp syntax either - it's just one way to represent a tree structure in linear text.

I think the real issue is the confusion in teaching is between Computer Science and Computing as a vocation. Nobody teaches the former any more, because it's less useful in the real world. As a result, we have languages which try to make a distinction between "programmer" and "programming language implementer", where the programmer generally knows less about what he is doing because someone has imposed a specific, narrow set of ideas on him.

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2 comments · 2 top-level

skrishnamurthi12y ago

I've programmed in and taught Lisp syntax for 24 years, much of it exclusively in that syntax. I've also extensively researched errors in parenthetical languages.

The simplicity of parens is widely regarded as a strength, but I believe it is also a weakness. There is too much regularity in the syntax, resulting in numerous errors. Programmers, especially beginning programmers, need more "guideposts" in their programs. Additionally, parsers also benefit from this when producing errors.

The developers of Pyret are drenched in Lisp syntax; we know it profoundly well. Pyret is a conscious attempt to fix what we regard as flaws with that syntax.

omaranto12y ago

I disagree about Lisp's syntax being "just the syntax tree", it is instead as you say a little later on, one specific way of writing linear strings of characters that correspond to syntax trees. Of course any other unambiguous grammar is also just one specific way of doing that. Lisp's syntax is not special because it somehow magically corresponds to parse trees where other syntaxes do not; rather in the case of Lisp the correspondence is simpler than for other languages. You make it sounds like Lisp does not need to be parsed, which is clearly false, it's just easier than most (but not all) other languages.

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