[REBOL] no function calling syntax => was: {Re: Re: Parsing comment}
From: jason::cunliffe::verizon::net at: 24-Sep-2002 14:30
> I think your correspondent means the parser that interprets the Rebol
> dialect, not the 'parse dialect. And I think the colleague is unused to
> Rebol language with it's no function calling syntax. For example, in Rebol:
> >> print 1 + 2
> 3
>
> In other languages (like Python), the above is something like:
> print (1 + 2)
Andrew
Yes. As you and others have said, that is one of the fundamental difference
twixt Python and Rebol which bothers them.
I've been thinking about this more. Both language are good candidates for
'first' [novice] steps in programming. Yet so very different.
I think it partly comes down to the valid Pythonistas perspective/experience
that, for them, Rebol is not so easy to read(). They cannot tell easily or with
certainty what's what. Python is very consistent in how one reads it.
On the other hand, REBOL's strongest hand I suspect is that is so easy to WRITE.
Using Rebol is like learning to speak. It really is a messaging language and the
flow is narrative and conversational, and at best poetic. Reading REBOL can be
harder, but like any language, proficiency in pattern recognition comes thorough
use. You have to be in REBOL to 'get it', just like a conversation. REBOL is
very idiomatic.
Imagine a movie. You walk in the middle.
How easy is it to understand? Do you get the references and jokes?
I welcome to hear all your 'cognitive' descriptions of REBOL, and also what you
observe when switching to other languages?
thanks
./Jason
