OT: Programmers whos first language is not English

[Stephen Horne]

On 09 Mar 2003 21:02:23 +0000, Alexander Schmolck <a.schmolck at gmx.net>
wrote:

>Stephen Horne <intentionally at blank.co.uk> writes:
>
>> I haven't seen this before, but I have seen (and considered) similar.
>> In the most extreme form, I considered having an XML representation of
>> the semantics (basically the abstract syntax tree that the parser
>> would normally construct) and allowing people to invent their own
>> syntaxes almost arbitrarily.
>
>Uhm, why not just use lisp?

I think I had this conversation with Paul Foley, long ago ;-)

I repeat (or at least paraphrase) the short version of the answer I
used then... I don't think LISP is a friendly language.

Of course XML isn't a friendly language either, but the programmer
looking at his editor is not supposed to see XML.

Yes, I also know that it is possible to write a parser in LISP and use
it as a metalanguage in a remarkably natural way. It's still not what
I mean, though it IS among the advantages I'd like to be able to
emulate.