Re: Algol-like syntax for Lisp

Blake McBride wrote:

> I'd like to create an Algol-like syntax for Common Lisp.  The syntax
> and semantics would always remain compatible with Lisp.  The program
> would be written in Common Lisp.  It would read in the new syntax and
> output Common Lisp (the first converter).
> 
> I'd also like to have the ability to read in Lisp and output the new
> syntax so that new syntax programmers would feel comfortable with code
> written in Lisp syntax (the second converter).

Macros will probably be hard, but you may want to take a look at 
Jonathan Bachrach's work on d-expressions, an attempt to integrate a 
'full' macro system into Dylan.

I think that additional parsing and pretty-printing steps are not really 
worthwhile because they don't really go the whole way. Instead, I think 
it would be neater if the internal AST is an object graph which can be 
presented and modified using an MVC approach (or something similar). 
This could potentially give us a system in which you could mix and match 
different (domain-specific) syntaxes, or maybe even fully graphical 
program elements.

The research on intentional programming goes in that direction. See also 
Andrew Eisenberg's work on edit-time metaobject protocols, or Robert 
Wensman's work at http://www.ida.liu.se/~robwe/
which is probably more 
Lispy. Scheme's syntax objects may be a good starting point.

I'd be surprised if there weren't even more related approaches in the 
past, with some good ideas...


Pascal

-- 
1st European Lisp Symposium (ELS'08)
http://prog.vub.ac.be/~pcostanza/els08/

My website: http://p-cos.net
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