Re: A read-based grep-like for symbols (el-search?) (was Do shorthands break basic tooling (tags, grep, etc)? (was Re: Shorthands have landed on master))

[Gregory Heytings]

> > The objections raised in this discussion are not only about grep.
>
> But in this thread, we're discussing a grep-like, so please don't derail 
> it with the same points rebutted over and over.

You started a subthread to discuss possible solutions from the point of 
view of grep, which is fine, but it is IMO important to not forget that 
the fact that shorthands break grep is not the only problem, and perhaps 
even not the most important one.

> > They are also about tag systems (that can do more complex operations 
> > than grep on source files), and about the problem of code readability 
> > for Elisp programmers.  All of a sudden symbols can silently be 
> > transformed by 'read' without any clear indication that such a 
> > transformation takes place.
>
> I'm getting a bit tired of stressing that things with no "clear 
> indication" are what higher level-languages are about: anonymous 
> functions, macros, etc abstraction in general. Namespaces are also that: 
> you may not like them but they exist everywhere else for a reason.

AFAIK, no other language use a shorthand-like approach to implement 
namespaces.  That's perhaps not without a reason.