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Re: Writing HG LISP in Python, kind of

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 Ar an ceathrú lá is fiche de mí Méan Fómhair, scríobh Lawrence D’Oliveiro: 

 > On Tue, 23 Sep 2025 20:28:19 +0100, Aidan Kehoe wrote:
 > 
 > > Ar an ceathrú lá déag de mí Aibreán, scríobh Lawrence D'Oliveiro:
 > > 
 > >> Is that why Lisp needs the separate concept of multi-value return,
 > >> instead of doing simple destructuring assignment as both Python and
 > >> JavaScript are able to do?
 > > 
 > > Lisp’s #'destructuring-bind is available. But the stack is right
 > > there (for most people, most of the time), why not make use it as a
 > > cheap way to return multiple values?
 > 
 > That’s an implementation issue, which is irrelevant to the way the 
 > language works.

I used to think this back I took an interest in comp.lang.c, where people were
unwilling to discuss aspects of the common implementations that did not fall
under the standards. I thought they were 100% in the right.

With time and maturity I have come to the realisation that there is *always* an
underlying machine and an underlying language implementation, absent irrelevant
Gedankenexperimente where software does not have to run. If the software
written is multiplatform, there are more important (more used) and less
important (less used) platforms.

What can be implemented, and what can be implemented in a performant way,
guides language design. Language design guides how a language works.

 > Python lets you write
 > 
 >     a, b = b, a
 > 
 > as an easy way to swap the values of variables, for example.

Madhu has followed this up fairly comprehensively.

-- 
‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /
How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’
(C. Moore)

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Re: Writing HG LISP in Python, kind of Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-04-14 23:43 +0000
  Re: Writing HG LISP in Python, kind of "B. Pym" <Nobody447095@here-nor-there.org> - 2025-06-10 07:53 +0000
  Re: Writing HG LISP in Python, kind of Aidan Kehoe <kehoea@parhasard.net> - 2025-09-23 20:28 +0100
    Re: Writing HG LISP in Python, kind of Jeff Barnett <jbb@notatt.com> - 2025-09-23 17:22 -0600
    Re: Writing HG LISP in Python, kind of Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-09-24 09:11 +0000
      Re: Writing HG LISP in Python, kind of Madhu <enometh@meer.net> - 2025-09-24 16:55 +0530
        Re: Writing HG LISP in Python, kind of tpeplt@gmail.com - 2025-09-24 14:59 -0400
        Re: Writing HG LISP in Python, kind of Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-09-24 20:34 +0000
          Re: Writing HG LISP in Python, kind of Aidan Kehoe <kehoea@parhasard.net> - 2025-09-25 06:07 +0100
            Re: Writing HG LISP in Python, kind of Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-09-25 05:49 +0000
          Re: Writing HG LISP in Python, kind of ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram) - 2025-09-26 20:12 +0000
      Re: Writing HG LISP in Python, kind of Aidan Kehoe <kehoea@parhasard.net> - 2025-09-24 14:03 +0100
        Re: Writing HG LISP in Python, kind of Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-09-24 20:33 +0000
          Re: Writing HG LISP in Python, kind of Aidan Kehoe <kehoea@parhasard.net> - 2025-09-25 05:58 +0100
            Re: Writing HG LISP in Python, kind of Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-09-25 05:50 +0000

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