[kazinator]

Some Lisp designers are listening:

  $ cat animal.tl 
  (defstruct animal nil
    (:static legs nil)
    (:method speak (self something)
      (pprinl something)))

  (defstruct dog animal
    (:static legs 4)
    (:method speak (self something)
      (call-super-method self 'speak something)
      (pprinl "Woof!")))

  $ txr -i animal.tl 
  1> (defvar d1 (new dog))
  d1
  2> (defvar d2 (new dog))
  d2
  3> d1.legs
  4
  4> (set d2.legs 5) ;; legs is static: i.e. class-wide
  5
  5> d1.legs ;; all dogs have 5 legs now
  5
  6> d1.(speak "hey!")
  hey!
  Woof!
  "Woof!"
  7>

Next:

  7> 'a.b.c.d
  a.b.c.d
  8> (car 'a.b.c.d)
  qref
  9> (cdr 'a.b.c.d)
  (a b c d)
  10> '(qref a b c d)  ;; qref ::= "qualified reference"
  a.b.c.d
  11> '(qref a b (c x y) d)
  a.b.(c x y).d
  12> '(qref (qref a b) c)
  (qref a.b c)

qref is syntax, targetted by a macro definition:

  13> (macroexpand '(qref a b c))
  (slot (slot a 'b)
        'c)

We can hijack it in data for our own use:

  14> '(www.google.com "blah")
  (www.google.com "blah")
  15> (caar '(www.google.com "blah"))
  qref
  16> (cdar '(www.google.com "blah"))
  (www google com)

The TXR Lisp scripting language removes most of the Lisp micro-stumbling-blocks in everyday coding, providing the above notation, plus array access with ranges, and nice "string quasiliteral" notation for interpolated strings.

  17> [mapcar succ "abcd"]
  "bcde"
  18> ["abcdefg" 0]
  #\a
  19> ["abcdefg" 0..3]
  "abc"
  20> ["abcdefg" -2..:]
  "fg"
  21> (car 'a..b)
  rcons
  22> (cdr 'a..b)
  (a b)
  23> '(rcons a b)
  a..b
  24> (rcons 1 2)
  #R(1 2)
  25> ["abcd" #R(1 3)]
  "bc"
  26> ["abcde" '(0 2 4 6)]
  "ace"