function types syntax

[John Rose]

On Jan 6, 2010, at 3:49 PM, Neal Gafter wrote:

> The kind of heuristics you're suggesting for how we focus our
> attention on use cases is much more appropriate to API design than
> language design.

+1; thanks Neal.  I think your experiences and mine in those realms are similar.

"Feedback happens" but in the case of designing a widely used language, the revisions are seldom enough, and the revision costs are high enough, that heavy investment in prediction pays off.  The situation is comparable to that with CPU chip design.  We really should not discourage nitpicking here.  (And I mean logical nitpicking; esthetic arguments are also valuable but less so due to their indeterminate outcomes.)

-- John