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Red: A programming language inspired by REBOL

(github.com)
95 points Levitating | 1 comments | 31 Aug 25 03:14 UTC | HN request time: 0.437s | source
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araes ◴[31 Aug 25 21:49 UTC] No.45087418[source]▶
Has the same annoying issues as REBOL. Special characters are allowed in words.

  a+b
is a word. Unlike

  a + b
which is a sequence of three words separated by spaces.

Dealbreaker. a+b*c + a+b * c / a+b/d + a+b / d % a + b So easy to miss or add a space while typing. Reading afterward, its difficult to tell if there's even spaces in some areas.

replies(2): >>45087879 #>>45089471 #
1. DemocracyFTW2 ◴[31 Aug 25 23:05 UTC] No.45087879[source]▶
I actually think languages should rather enforce spaces around (most) operators for a number of reasons. One is clarity, another one is that it should make the grammar simpler. Whether `alice+bob` is a good name for a variable is certainly up for debate but using hyphens for compound names (as in CSS) is in principle even better for readability than using underscores (and def better than cAmElCaSe). I find this a similar issue to the (to me, mal-) practice of allowing `.86` for what should properly be written `0.86`; this, too, introduces complexity with very little gain, if any, in usability.