__volatile__ __asm__

volatile is a C keyword, and programmers know better than using asm as an identifier. Why do people insist on using double underscores around them, especially Linux kernel developers?

Also, why do people use things like __attribute__((aligned(n))) instead of defining a macro ALIGNED(n)?

>>37-38
Were I to write such a language, my target demographic would obviously not be lispers (who seem to have somehow already grown accustomed to the, um, syntax). The point of writing such a language would be to basically sell all of Lisp's awesome features, minus the Sexps, to regular people who don't want to twist their mind (regardless of their text editor) into mentally parsing lisp code into something meaningful.

I find it quite ironic that Lisp's semantics are so liberating, yet the syntax is so frustratingly constrained.