Thuna on Nostr: Indentation is there to clarify what is happening. You would not look at (loop for x ...
Indentation is there to clarify what is happening. You would not look at
(loop for x below 3
if (oddp x)
unless (zerop x)
collect x
else collect 'a)
and think that the else clause is a part of the unless clause, but it is. This is because LOOP is just *not like lisp*, the rules of how things relate are not transferrable.
Indentation matters not because it literally changes the scope but because it informs your perspective of what the code is doing. You don't *need* indentation when working with lisp, indeed, you can have everything be flush with the beginning of the line, but you still indent the code in a strict and consistent manner because that helps you understand what's happening without counting parentheses. It's the same for LOOP, except instead of counting parentheses you're counting conditional clauses.
(loop for x below 3
if (oddp x)
unless (zerop x)
collect x
else collect 'a)
and think that the else clause is a part of the unless clause, but it is. This is because LOOP is just *not like lisp*, the rules of how things relate are not transferrable.
Indentation matters not because it literally changes the scope but because it informs your perspective of what the code is doing. You don't *need* indentation when working with lisp, indeed, you can have everything be flush with the beginning of the line, but you still indent the code in a strict and consistent manner because that helps you understand what's happening without counting parentheses. It's the same for LOOP, except instead of counting parentheses you're counting conditional clauses.