Re: The semicolon habit (was: Q: Definition of a scripting lang.)

Stefan Monnier <monnier@di.epfl.ch>
Thu, 11 May 1995 11:37:38 GMT

          From comp.compilers

Related articles
[12 earlier articles]
Re: The semicolon habit (was: Q: Definition of a scripting lang.) anw@maths.nottingham.ac.uk (Dr A. N. Walker) (1995-05-02)
Re: The semicolon habit (was: Q: Definition of a scripting lang.) lwall@netlabs.com (1995-05-09)
Re: The semicolon habit (was: Q: Definition of a scripting lang.) tchannon@black.demon.co.uk (Tim Channon) (1995-05-04)
Re: The semicolon habit (was: Q: Definition of a scripting lang.) ok@cs.rmit.edu.au (1995-05-04)
Re: The semicolon habit (was: Q: Definition of a scripting lang.) bevan@cs.man.ac.uk (1995-05-10)
Re: The semicolon habit (was: Q: Definition of a scripting lang.) bevan@cs.man.ac.uk (1995-05-10)
Re: The semicolon habit (was: Q: Definition of a scripting lang.) monnier@di.epfl.ch (Stefan Monnier) (1995-05-11)
Re: The semicolon habit (was: Q: Definition of a scripting lang.) cef@geodesic.com (Charles Fiterman) (1995-05-11)
Re: The semicolon habit (was: Q: Definition of a scripting lang.) plong@perf.com (1995-05-11)
Re: The semicolon habit (was: Q: Definition of a scripting lang.) stidev@gate.net (1995-05-12)
Re: The semicolon habit (was: Q: Definition of a scripting lang.) rabin@CS.YALE.EDU (1995-05-12)
Re: The semicolon habit (was: Q: Definition of a scripting lang.) plong@perf.com (1995-05-12)
Re: The semicolon habit (was: Q: Definition of a scripting lang.) bevan@cs.man.ac.uk (1995-05-15)
[2 later articles]
| List of all articles for this month |

Newsgroups: comp.compilers
From: Stefan Monnier <monnier@di.epfl.ch>
Keywords: syntax, design
Organization: Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
References: 95-04-013> 95-05-069
Date: Thu, 11 May 1995 11:37:38 GMT

mitchell@mdd.comm.mot.com (Bill Mitchell) writes:
      ... Inferring flow control from indent level just does not work in
      practice in a multi-programmer, multi-editor multi-display-format
      situation.


Stephen J Bevan <bevan@cs.man.ac.uk> wrote:
] Wouldn't the problem be solved if all the programmers on the project
] followed (and stuck to!) a style guide? I know it can grate to have
] to use a style which does not match your own, but IMHO the advantages
] outweigh the disadvantages on a multi-person project. Since this is


Wouldn't it be so much easier to store your source as a syntax-tree ?
1 - the compiler doesn't have to care about parsing.
2 - but somebody else (the editor, for instance) has, so 1 is moot.
3 - you can edit your file with whatever indentation style you want: just ask
        the editor (the editor would do the unparsing)
4 - you can even choose between different syntaxes. If you prefer indentation
        over block delimiters ... go ahead. The mapping from text to syntax tree
        would not be part of the language itself, but would be a little
        editor-customization !


I'm not saying writing an editor this way is the easiest thing in the
world, but it is possible (there are examples close enough) and it
looks like *the right way* to do things to me.




Stefan
--


Post a followup to this message

Return to the comp.compilers page.
Search the comp.compilers archives again.