on the road to lisp

So one of my goals with my new syntax was to eliminate the un-necessary. It's funny that as I did that I slowy ended up with a s-expression-like feel. Check it:

#So we start with a function:

function filter($array, $field, $pattern=false, $limit=0, $above=0){
}

#first we make an array of users

$users = Array(Array('name'=>'shaun','age'=>26),Array('name'=>'peter','age'=>60));

#now we can filter it

$newusers = filter($users, 'age', false, false, 25); 

#clearly if we didn't have the definition of function right above us it would get confusing. So the first thing that would make it more legible is keyword parameters.

$newusers = filter(array:$users, field:'age', above:25); 

#whats nice about that is we can leave out the params we don't need and just pass the ones we do thus allowing functions to start to become more of a DSL. Still this feels akward, what if we dropped the brackets? They're just a security blanket anyway.

$newusers = filter array:$users, field:'age', above:10; 

#now we're getting somewhere but why not drop the comas and just infer from the whitespace that there are seperations?

$newusers = filter array:$users field:'age' above:25; 

#sweet, but now that we can match functions why not allow "other words" to make it read more like a sentence and just have the parser ignore them? This way we don't clutter our methods, objects and keyword params with meaningless "joining words"

$newusers = filter the array:$users where field:'age' is above:25; 

#that would end up getting parsed into:

$newusers = filter($users,'age',false,false,25); 

#thus it does not add overhead but creates a much more readable "inline-commented" version which can thus easily modified by someone who did not write the original code or method.

#now what about the array declaration? using our concept of dropping the un-necessary lets use key:value pairs and no commas

$users = ((name:'shaun' age:25) (name:'peter' age:60)); 

#that definitely feels nicer than php or the json approach in my book. What is the obsession with commas? What purpose do they provide that white space does not?

#the next question is probably: what about inline expressions and or method calls i.e.

function get_users($group,$limit){}

$users = filter array:getusers group: 10 limit: 10 field:'name' pattern:'/[a-z]*/i'; 

#cleary we have some issues how can the parser group the arguments? well:

$users = filter array:(getusers group:10 limit:10) field:'name' pattern:'/[a-z]*/i';

#holy s-expressions batman!