[racket-dev] Square-bracket-sensitive macros in Scribble sandboxes

Okay, I can't resist: why not use parens?

On Fri, Nov 23, 2012 at 4:31 PM, Neil Toronto <neil.toronto at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 11/23/2012 03:03 PM, Robby Findler wrote:
>>
>> That [implicitly quasiquoting array data] sounds crazy, man. How about
>> #:keywords instead?
>
>
> Like this?
>
>   (array #:keywords (list) ((list 1 2)))
>
> Deciding how to print elements would be a problem.
>
>
>> If not, then I
>> think you're better off just going with identifiers.
>
>
> I'm trying to avoid them because I find this hard to read:
>
>   (array (array-row
>           (array-row (array-row "00" "01" "02"))
>           (array-row (array-row "10" "11" "12"))
>           (array-row (array-row "20" "21" "22"))
>           (array-row (array-row "30" "31" "32"))))
>
> The keywords get in the way. This isn't an issue with any constructor of
> flat data like `list', `vector' and #hash(). With those, your brain can
> forget about the names that delimit the data because they're at the
> beginning, but `array-row' is interspersed. (It's worse when the data are
> different sizes.) Compare with this:
>
>   (array [[["00" "01" "02"]]
>           [["10" "11" "12"]]
>           [["20" "21" "22"]]
>           [["30" "31" "32"]]])
>
> I read "this is an array," then a bunch of structured data.
>
> (Alternatively, think of how annoying #hash() would be if you had to type
> and read (cons x y) instead of (x . y).)
>
> I didn't mind #() because "#" isn't too intrusive. I don't mind implicit
> quasiquoting because most array data are going to be constants, so the
> ugliness happens infrequently.
>
> I don't want to be stodgy about this, but I also don't want people thinking,
> "Oh, that's hideous" the first time they see an array printed. I'm also
> aware that this is dangerously close to bikeshedding... :/
>
> Neil ⊥
>