[racket-dev] #true and #false

From: Matthias Felleisen (matthias at ccs.neu.edu)
Date: Sun Oct 10 10:41:00 EDT 2010

1. I consider concise readability as superior to short unreadability. In this spirit, #true and #false are an improvement. I understand that more perfect people than myself will never conflate #t with #f, but since it happened to Matthew, I am happy not be alone. (And that happened before I turned 50 and are probably in the business for reading glasses soon.) 

2. I agree that I dislike their unequal length. Before I requested these new constants from Matthew, I considered #tt and #ff instead, i.e., just an extra letter. In a matrix, this could look just fine and would be a nice compromise concerning 1. 

I also agree that # is, eh, unusual but nobody else has `(true ,true) in languages and things such as 

> Welcome to DrRacket, version 5.0.1.8--2010-10-09(f35477b/g) [3m].
> Language: Intermediate Student with lambda.
> > (map boolean? `(true ,true))
> (list false true)



I am fine with keeping #t and #f around for the more perfect people but I definitely would like an alternative syntax. 

-- Matthias



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