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From: Petter Gustad on 20 Oct 2009 03:47

Quite some time ago somebody posted an URL to an image showing some
Lisp code which were annotated "What you see", with blurred code and
highlighted parenthesis. And then "What I see" (or something like
that) with blurred parenthesis and highlighted code.

Anybody have this URL?

Petter
--
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?
From: vippstar on 20 Oct 2009 06:58
On Oct 20, 10:47 am, Petter Gustad <newsmailco...(a)gustad.com> wrote:
> Quite some time ago somebody posted an URL to an image showing some
> Lisp code which were annotated "What you see", with blurred code and
> highlighted parenthesis. And then "What I see" (or something like
> that) with blurred parenthesis and highlighted code.
>
> Anybody have this URL?

Searching the web is too hard in 2009.
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22what+the+non-lisper+sees%22
From: Petter Gustad on 20 Oct 2009 07:52
vippstar <vippstar(a)gmail.com> writes:

> On Oct 20, 10:47 am, Petter Gustad <newsmailco...(a)gustad.com> wrote:
>> Quite some time ago somebody posted an URL to an image showing some
>> Lisp code which were annotated "What you see", with blurred code and
>> highlighted parenthesis. And then "What I see" (or something like
>> that) with blurred parenthesis and highlighted code.
>>
>> Anybody have this URL?
>
> Searching the web is too hard in 2009.
> http://www.google.com/search?q=%22what+the+non-lisper+sees%22

Thanks. I tried to search using Google, but I did not remember the
string "what the non-lisper sees". I tried various combinations of
"what I see", "what you see", lisp, parenthesis etc.

Petter

--
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?
From: J Kenneth King on 20 Oct 2009 09:42
Petter Gustad <newsmailcomp6(a)gustad.com> writes:

> vippstar <vippstar(a)gmail.com> writes:
>
>> On Oct 20, 10:47 am, Petter Gustad <newsmailco...(a)gustad.com> wrote:
>>> Quite some time ago somebody posted an URL to an image showing some
>>> Lisp code which were annotated "What you see", with blurred code and
>>> highlighted parenthesis. And then "What I see" (or something like
>>> that) with blurred parenthesis and highlighted code.
>>>
>>> Anybody have this URL?
>>
>> Searching the web is too hard in 2009.
>> http://www.google.com/search?q=%22what+the+non-lisper+sees%22
>
> Thanks. I tried to search using Google, but I did not remember the
> string "what the non-lisper sees". I tried various combinations of
> "what I see", "what you see", lisp, parenthesis etc.
>
> Petter

And unsurprisingly, the conversation on reddit discussing the image is
complete non-sense and full of FUD.

There is someone who thinks infix and dense syntax makes programs more
readable.

God I love the Internet.
From: Anti Vigilante on 20 Oct 2009 11:41
On Tue, 2009-10-20 at 09:42 -0400, J Kenneth King wrote:
> Petter Gustad <newsmailcomp6(a)gustad.com> writes:
>
> > vippstar <vippstar(a)gmail.com> writes:
> >
> >> On Oct 20, 10:47 am, Petter Gustad <newsmailco...(a)gustad.com> wrote:
> >>> Quite some time ago somebody posted an URL to an image showing some
> >>> Lisp code which were annotated "What you see", with blurred code and
> >>> highlighted parenthesis. And then "What I see" (or something like
> >>> that) with blurred parenthesis and highlighted code.
> >>>
> >>> Anybody have this URL?
> >>
> >> Searching the web is too hard in 2009.
> >> http://www.google.com/search?q=%22what+the+non-lisper+sees%22
> >
> > Thanks. I tried to search using Google, but I did not remember the
> > string "what the non-lisper sees". I tried various combinations of
> > "what I see", "what you see", lisp, parenthesis etc.
> >
> > Petter
>
> And unsurprisingly, the conversation on reddit discussing the image is
> complete non-sense and full of FUD.
>
> There is someone who thinks infix and dense syntax makes programs more
> readable.
>
> God I love the Internet.

You know the irony of it all is that the fear of parens is caused by
countless times leaving out a ;, a ,, or a }. (intended (on (pun
punctuation). There is no syntax other than differentiation of symbols
and association of symbols into operations.

The debate over infix versus prefix has some limited substance. On the
one hand all languages use prefix: function(arg, arg). The trouble is
the Yoda principle:

Sometimes infix feels like Yoda: Have you ever seen this, "filename open
'rw'" or "file transfer local from storage remote to storage"?

If it were a network diagram it would almost make sense except local and
storage and remote and storage belong together.

Other times prefix feels like Yoda: (with (cut ((the lieutenant) (his
(lieutenant chicken)) (and ((a knife) fork)))

Funny way to say, "The lieutenant cut his chicken with a knife and
fork."

Infix makes the object do the action (instead of you or the computer)
while prefix forces you to find the beginning of the sentence buried
somewhere in the middle.

It's a wash. They both fail. I would say though that prefix usually gets
unscrambled as you stop looking at words as being important and allow
them to just be simple details. The clarity that emerges from crossing
that threshold is beyond the limits of stop and go driving offered by
infix.

Granted, if we had one list per line and two newlines signified end of
list, the parens could go away as well.

I tried to replace parens with a _#SPACE, #SPACE_ based read macro but I
couldn't figure out how to write the thing.

Read macros are the machine language of lisp. (Eval is closer to
assembly). You can't test the macro half way through. You have to do
things in blocks of two: Take care of opening and closing or you will
have to start over from scratch.

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