nemesis <nam### [at] nospam-gmailcom> wrote:
> (for i from 0 to 9 => (vector-set! vec i (* i i)))
>
> Nevertheless, don't you find it amazing to be able to simply churn out
> new syntax as you see fit?

#define FROM for(int
#define TO ;!(
#define INCREMENT );
#define BEGIN ++){
#define END }

FROM i = 1 TO i = 10 INCREMENT i
BEGIN
END

didn't test it, but if I'm not mistaken it should be perfectly valid C++ code.

I have one word for that:

    Inconsistency.

*You* can read it, but someone else must first learn your brand-new churned-out
syntax to grasp your code.

Yes, great for obfuscating. No, bad for anything that requires teamwork.

> Frankly, is the above syntax truly hard to figure it out?

Yes - not primarily because the syntax is hard to read, but primarily because
I'm not accustomed to this kind of basic approach. The shorthand syntax just
makes things worse by not giving any clue (just like for someone just learning
C, I guess).

> But yes, C is digestible simply because of sheer familiarity.
> It's like Windows.

No, its higher digestibility lies not only in the sheer familiarity of C itself
(and its heirs), but mainly in that the basic *concept* is probably familiar to
*any* programmer. I can't imagine a programmer who has in his whole life never
ever gotten in touch with imperative programming. But I know a whole bunch of
software developers who, confronted with the question what functional
programming languages they know, would probably answer with a puzzled "what?"

So it's not like Windows. It's like GUI. Everyone has seen it, and everyone
knows at least a *bit* of how to get along in it somehow; even if all your
computer experience was from a Mac, you'd have at least some vague idea of how
to do *something* in Windows - and vice versa; even those who prefer to work
with vi typically know at least a bit about how to operate a GUI. - But place a
random person in front of a console with vi running, and they'll be lost.
Utterly. They wouldn't even be able to shut down the computer (well, unless
they have access to the power switch).

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