[plt-scheme] Keyword args

From: Eli Barzilay (eli at barzilay.org)
Date: Fri Oct 22 20:54:37 EDT 2004

On Oct 22, Paul Schlie wrote:
> [...]
>  -but-please-not-
> 
> (some-function :x 1 :y 2)

It is a very popular format for keywords, there is tons of code that
will break if it is changed.


> As for whatever reason, I still can't help finding it visually
> disturbing, and contradicting my instinctive expectations of a colon
> appearing between associated elements, prefixing the keyword just
> doesn't feel reasonable.

If you think about the ":" as a form of "'" (visually) then it does
make sense.


On Oct 22, Doug Orleans wrote:
> 
> How do you feel about this:
> 
> (some-function 'x 1 'y 2)

The problem with this is that what you really want is a new type, not
like other symbols.  (Or did you say this to make the same point I had
above.)

If mzscheme would have a simple reader syntax facility, I'd make
Swindle turn `:foo' into something different than the symbol `'foo'.
Actually, I think that it is hackable, maybe it's worth
implementing...  (Obviously, that will break some amount of code
too...)

-- 
          ((lambda (x) (x x)) (lambda (x) (x x)))          Eli Barzilay:
                  http://www.barzilay.org/                 Maze is Life!


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