Clojurians Log v2
off-topic 2026-07-20
What is a word for pair of delimiters that goes on either side of something?
"..."
(...)
[...]
f"..."
{{...}}
"bracket delimiter" i think
isn’t it delimiters?
so the comma in a csv file is a delimiter
quotes are fun because the start and end are the same character
Introducing smart quotes
sets and anonymous functions are fun because they have multiple start characters
For context, I am looking at an API that uses an anonymous title to represent these. I need to name that tuple
I would suggest "scope delimiters" or "block delimiters".
Delimiter pair is the winner for me right now, but it doesn't inspire Joy
if your language allows emoji variable names, you can do "👯-delimiters"
nested word grammars/automata, which I think are the machines that can parse these things, refer the the start as "call" and the end as "return" which will really confuse people
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9118769/when-to-use-the-terms-delimiter-terminator-and-separator indicates that delimiter is what you're talking about, contrasting seprators
Unicode has "open punctuation" and "close punctuation" categories https://www.compart.com/en/unicode/category/Ps https://www.compart.com/en/unicode/category/Pe
when I used emacs I had an elisp script that programmatically found all members of those categories
according to wikipedia, [delimiter] can mean a period or comma tooIn data, commas are usually separators. Only(?) in Perl are commas frequently used as brackets, e.g. qr,regex/including/slashes,g
you can delimit without a matched pair though, eg. in a csv, the comma delimits
aren’t those comma separated values?
a delimiter always separates, not all delimiters are matched in open / close pairs
If I recall correctly, at minimum you need a push down automata for solving the open/close matched delimiter problem. You need a stack.
Because if you tried to build a DFA you can't deliver on the promise of F (finite) because the number of states, depending on the input, may grow without bound.
I read something that referred to them as "mirrored delimiters". Because if you see one, you'll see its reflection eventually.
Fences feels like what it would be called, but the link doesn't confirm much
Ha. Just checked the csv spec. Says new lines delimit each row, separated by commas, and enclosed by double quotes when needed. So no help there
"Enclosers"
SURROUNDATORS
CSV is a useful example of why "delimiter" doesn't always mean matched pairs, I had forgotten that it calls newlines a delimiter and comma a separator
think I’d go with "delimiter pair" or "scope delimiter", maybe even "hugger" :D
"delimiter pairs" is what I have used
A post here on a use
Just came across this post on a positive musical application of AI and thought it might be of interest to some fellow clojurians/musicians (clojicians? mujurians?): https://www.itma.ie/blog/using-ai-technology-on-michael-colemans-recordings For context -- Michael Coleman was probably the most influential Irish fiddle player of the recorded era, and the backing for recording sessions in America in the early 20th century was often provided by session musicians without a proper grounding in the idiom. Some were good regardless, but others could be quite distracting and being able to pull them out of the mix is a win.
I've spent enough time listening to old recordings myself at this stage that I no longer really notice poor sound quality or even bad backing in context (the interesting stuff for Irish music trainspotters like myself is melodic variation). But nice to hear of an application of controversial tech that might make this invaluable musical material more accessible to others.
Very cool use of instrument separation!