At least you got all that negative karma out of the way when you were already starting around 1. All that downvoting just pounded you down to 1 again... not a very long fall.
I, too, appreciate the ? for predicates, but that is just because that is how I learned Scheme to begin with. Imagine my horror to have to deal with #'zerop when I got to CL after years with my precious zero? predicate. Arc's lack of punctuation is better than excessive punctuation at least.
As I read it, character set support isn't that interesting to him right now, and he'd rather focus on other things. Everyone keeps treating it like this version of the language is the final one. Of course it's going to constantly gain new functionality.
If that had been my impression I'd never have posted anything on this rather boring topic. What made me think it might be a permanent design decision is this extract from the Arc intro: "[...] it doesn't support any character sets except ascii. Such things may have their uses, but there's also a place for a language that skips them"
The problem is that it's left open to interpretation. Sure, he said Arc is a work in progress, and everyone gets that. The problem is knowing what's on the table for change, and what's not.
If you are scared to open your mouth and sound like a moron, you'll never get any practice at all.
Learning a second language is a lesson in humility. Trying going to a spanish cafe and asking for a 'bocadillo de polla' (instead of the correct 'bocadillo de pollo') ... that 'a' at the end is the difference between a 'dick sandwich' and what you most likely really wanted, a 'chicken sandwich'.
Had to learn that one the hard way myself. I'm sure the waiter in Sevilla is still laughing.
Seriously, the first draft of this thing is released and the guy is pissed because it doesn't support every feature that CL has accumulated over the last 40+ years and more?
Give me a break.
I hope the author of that post only releases his products when they are perfect in every way and support every feature that could ever be desired. That way I'll never have to see his code.
If I recall, the mantra is 'Release Early, Release Often' ... not 'Anything Released Is The Final Version For All Time'
