I don't understand why you would prefer ":" which is already used by maxima
for assignment. "->" is used by "mlisp" (circa 1959), a syntax for the
original Lisp for conditionals, approximately the way I showed it.
It is also used by guarded commands. It is not used in Maxima at the
moment.
An entirely new delimiter like ":::" or "@@" could be invented for the
purpose.
The delimiter "*" is used in C for about 7 different purposes. The language
C has something like 15 difference precedences among operators, and "*"
appears in 5 classes. Re-using operators this way can only add to the
confusion, it seems to me. Also, its precedence may be wrong, e.g. how to
parse b->a:odd is not a problem. But b:a:odd is confusing.
RJF
> -----Original Message-----
> From: maxima-bounces at math.utexas.edu [mailto:maxima-
> bounces at math.utexas.edu] On Behalf Of Michel Van den Bergh
> Sent: Monday, January 08, 2007 2:28 AM
> To: maxima at math.utexas.edu; fateman at cs.berkeley.edu
> Subject: Extending maxima language
>
> >
> >
> >The use of "->" as a separator is actually not imposed by the file, and
> you
> >can use any non-commuting binary or nary operators such as [ , , .] or :
> or
> >::/ or make up something else like --|> .
> >/
> >
> >
> Richard,
>
> Could you please fix a separator (and test for it in your lisp code)?
> Otherwise people will start to use different ones
> which will make it harder to maintain backwards compatibility in case of
> implementation
> changes.
>
> I vote for ":" (like in c), "->" has an established meaning in other
> languages (accessing instance variables of
> objects). "::" has an established meaning as well.
>
> Michel
>
> >
> >
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