| Well, code/data duality = homoiconicity There are many languages which do not use sexps but are homoiconic. See "examples" at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homoiconicity Yes, most of the examples look very limited compared to Lisp but there is Rebol / Red (http://www.red-lang.org/) which is atleast as powerful as Lisp in terms of homoiconicity (as well as in other things), if not more. Red/Rebol don't use sexps, don't look like this (((())))), are highly dynamic and homoiconic. See "Homoiconicity in Rebol" in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homoiconicity
(well, no good examples over there which shows Rebol's features properly.) > RE the learning curve: Do you think the APL family can exist without the terse syntax? So yes, I think that the APL family could exist without the terse syntax, but well hey, everything has its tradeoffs and all this is subjective - everyone has his own thinking - there might be someone in this world who in love with the APL syntax :D |
That said, Red looks like a godsend. I was looking for something I can use without much setup and learning costs, that is small, elegant, efficient, fast, gets the job done, and is long-term maintainable. Red seems to fit the bill. I'm still evaluating it and it still looks good.