Re: Hierarchical lists, again

[haahr@mv.us.adobe.com (Paul Haahr)]

i'd like to thank Harald for his observation.  i think it falls into the
``once you've seen it, it's obvious category.''  and while i'd like to
say that i'd been nudging my way towards this observation, i could have
probably gone many years without seeing it.

a truly brilliant insight.  from now on, if you want hierarchical lists,
write routines that expect code fragments that return lists.

now, should Harald's % function (perhaps with some other name) be added
as a builtin to the language?  (i.e., should it be defined in initial.es?)
my feeling is that it should be, but with an alphabetic name.  i propose
the following:

	values		# pretty unclear, but sort of resembles lisp
	thunk		# an unevaluated routine; the describes implementation
	wrap		# i kind of like this because it's a verb

and actively solicit suggestions from the list for something better.

one minor observation.  Harald's example
        ; w= <={let (x=fee fie foe foo; y=, .) {result <={% $x^$y}}}
is exactly equivalent to
        ; w= <={let (x=fee fie foe foo; y=, .) {% $x^$y}}
which might or might not be clearer for a given reader.

(and in general,
        result <={cmd}
is the same thing as
        cmd
which i personally find easier to read.)

paul