Re: Python Emacs (was Re: The <word>.<word>.<word> rule)

[Stainless Steel Rat <ratinox@peorth.gweep.net>]

* Brian Edmonds <brian@gweep.bc.ca>  on Wed, 17 May 2000
| Or there are some of us who think C++ sucks, but have serious trouble
| thinking in Lisp.  Learning Perl was a no-brainer for me, but every time
| I go to hack anything more difficult than a setq in my Emacs config I'm
| tearing my hair out.  For whatever it's worth my brain just doesn't work
| in the Lisp way.

My guess is that you are attempting to "translate" Lisp into something you
are familiar with.  This is bad for natural languages, and it is bad for
Lisp.  The mark of well-written Lisp is that you can read it almost like a
natural language.  In other words, when you see

	(+ 1 2 3 4)

You are consciously translating it into something like

	one plus two plus three plus four

Of course you have trouble; you are making it more complex than it is.
Instead, try reading it as

	add one, two, three, four

Once you can do that, parentheses become useful punctuation, just as they
are with complex algebraic notation.  Lisp works that way becuause it is a
functional language.  Everything in Lisp is a function of one sort or
another, from the simplest setq to the most complex lambda (now, some of
those give *me* a headache, but I've never laid claim to programming
godhead :).
-- 
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