Mastodawn

Elias Mårtenson Sep 7, 2025

@jackdaniel @screwlisp @publicvoit I couldn't disagree with that article more.

Java originally didn't have format strings. You have to do things almost exactly like how the article showed it:

String s = "a = " + a + ", b = " + b + "\n";

Eventually, people couldn't stand this anymore, and they got a format statement which borrowed a lot from C:

String s = String.format("a = %s, b = %s\n", a, b);

Turns out that distinguishing the way you want to format things with the data you want to format is good thing.

He then goes into a strawman showing some really complicated FORMAT patterns, and then write a lot of code that I certainly don't understand (because I didn't learn his API). He didn't need to implement a new library, because if he needed it, WITH-OUTPUT-TO-STRING is right there.

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Vassil Nikolov | Васил Николов Sep 7, 2025

@loke

You are quite right.
Common Lisp's format facility is a Good Thing.

Here as in many other cases, an old proverb applies:

Uti non abuti.

Use, but do not abuse.
The old Romans knew the world well.

Probably redundant, but just this idiom (and its variants) is worth its weight in gold:

~{~S~^, ~}

Note how this matches

<list> ::= <item> [ <separator> <list> ]

#CommonLisp

@jackdaniel @screwlisp @publicvoit

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Elias Mårtenson Sep 7, 2025

@vnikolov @jackdaniel @screwlisp @publicvoit people always complain about things that look complicated. Compare the complaints about regex, and how all proposed solutions are quantifiably worse once you understand the syntax.

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screwlisp Sep 7, 2025

I mentioned I wrote some notes on #commonLisp #formattedOutput as compares #markdown viz the #emacs #orgmode #interview with @publicvoit https://karl-voit.at/2025/08/17/Markdown-disaster/ in 45 minutes on #peertube #LIVE .

My theory turned out not to be very good, but it might be a fun look at FORMAT. #programming #technology #requirementsAnalysis #softwareEngineering

https://screwlisp.small-web.org/programming/cl-format-and-markdown/

#emacsconf on IRC please everyone.

@loke @vnikolov @jackdaniel

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Elias Mårtenson Sep 7, 2025

@screwlisp @publicvoit @vnikolov @jackdaniel You never included the link to the peertube location 🙂

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Vassil Nikolov | Васил Николов

From yesterday, I have
https://communitymedia.video/c/screwtape_channel/videos
and will try it now.

@loke @screwlisp @publicvoit @jackdaniel

Lispy gopher climate technology live podcast

Lispy Gopher Climate Common Lisp Technology LambdaMOO VR weekly podcast and interview show Every 000UTC live at https://anonradio.net:8443/anonradio then archived here

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