
Parinfer – simpler lisp editing - boxed
http://shaunlebron.github.io/parinfer/
======
georgeoliver
I think this hits a sweet spot between tools like Paredit and full-on
structural editing. Given an accepted format, couldn't any language have on
the fly syntax structure inference? I wonder how much uptake that would see.

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jiyinyiyong
While this looks awesome, I still wondering why not write in an indentation-
based syntax and compile the code, just like how we are using CoffeeScript?
[https://github.com/Cirru/minifier.clj/blob/master/cirru-
src/...](https://github.com/Cirru/minifier.clj/blob/master/cirru-
src/cirru/minifier/parse.cirru)

~~~
brudgers
One reason, reasonable or not, is that indentation based syntax overloads
white space in ways that muddle it's use for communicating with humans with
it's use for communicating with machines. I have some sympathy for the
argument (though it may be misplaced) because my gut suggests that the more a
language relies on whitespace, the more human communication via formatting
(such as reducing line lengths) becomes a corner case requiring special syntax
and using that special syntax induces cognitive load when reading and writing
the code.

That's not to say that for a Domain Specific language like HAML, the
whitespace approach isn't useful. But that's down closer to declarative
programming than trying to wire up a control flow.

YMMV.

