Subject: keyword names that can't be set in maxima
From: Robert Dodier
Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2007 17:22:25 -0700
On 2/16/07, Stavros Macrakis <macrakis at alum.mit.edu> wrote:
> On 2/16/07, Robert Dodier <robert.dodier at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Well, I wouldn't insist. Why not evaluate keywords like other symbols?
> > Then the user can use a quote mark if that gives them what they want.
>
> True, but I think we've found that quoting issues are hard to document in a
> way that users understand them and therefore a common cause of user error.
I don't get it. If keywords are evaluated like ordinary symbols there's
nothing peculiar to keywords to be explained. Surely inventing a novel
evaluation scheme especially for keywords is a greater documentation
problem.
> Actually, I'd see this as part of a larger effort to define maps or dictionaries
> a la most scripting languages, unified with records, hasharrays, lists, etc.
> But I don't have a complete proposal yet.... Parameter syntax would then
> be the same as map syntax.
I'm not sure I'm comfortable with making parameters look and act like map keys.
Robert