Conversation

At this year’s RacketCon, Matthew Flatt floated the idea of giving #lang racket’s successor a non-s-expression-based syntax, and frankly I am shocked by the amount of hand-wringing that single, non-specific, aspirational suggestion has apparently stirred within the community.

Brian Adkins

@lojic

Jul 19, 2019

Is it really surprising that people who chose Racket, in part, because they like s-expressions are upset about changing the syntax to non-s-expressions primarily to attract people who dislike s-expressions? It's just the flip-side of the motivation for the change.

Alexis King

@lexi_lambda

Jul 19, 2019

“Because they like s-expressions” is the part that confuses me. People must like them for a reason, but very little of the discussion seems to explain what that reason is. The obvious answer—macro support—isn’t compelling: PLT itself has done them without s-expressions, see Honu.