Is Lisp Syntax Readable
lisp syntax is really unreadable. 10 years ago, i thought it's more of a joke for those uninitiated. But then surely the basic fact of uniformity is a problem for reading (because in nature, things are not uniform). But now having coded lisp for ~5 years, i do find it comparatively unreadable.
here's sample code from GNU Emacs am currently reading.
(defun kill-new (string &optional replace yank-handler) "Make STRING the latest kill in the kill ring. …" (if (> (length string) 0) (if yank-handler (put-text-property 0 (length string) 'yank-handler yank-handler string)) (if yank-handler (signal 'args-out-of-range (list string "yank-handler specified for empty string")))) (unless (and kill-do-not-save-duplicates ;; Due to text properties such as 'yank-handler that ;; can alter the contents to yank, comparison using ;; `equal' is unsafe. (equal-including-properties string (car kill-ring))) (if (fboundp 'menu-bar-update-yank-menu) (menu-bar-update-yank-menu string (and replace (car kill-ring))))) (when save-interprogram-paste-before-kill (let ((interprogram-paste (and interprogram-paste-function (funcall interprogram-paste-function)))) (when interprogram-paste (dolist (s (if (listp interprogram-paste) (nreverse interprogram-paste) (list interprogram-paste))) (unless (and kill-do-not-save-duplicates (equal-including-properties s (car kill-ring))) (push s kill-ring)))))) (unless (and kill-do-not-save-duplicates (equal-including-properties string (car kill-ring))) (if (and replace kill-ring) (setcar kill-ring string) (push string kill-ring) (if (> (length kill-ring) kill-ring-max) (setcdr (nthcdr (1- kill-ring-max) kill-ring) nil)))) (setq kill-ring-yank-pointer kill-ring) (if interprogram-cut-function (funcall interprogram-cut-function string)))
Even though that Perl is a syntax soup, but once a programer is familiar with the language and a piece of code didn't abused the syntax, it's much more readable than lisp.