On Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:59:02 -0400, Jean-Denis Muys <jdm...@kleegroup.com> wrote:
>> It's a shame: I far preferred the BNF: more compact, not to mention you >> could copy and paste as well as search the text of the syntax itself. > > "shame"? Are you sure that's the word you wanted to use? Quite sure, yes. > - compactness: very weak argument, maybe even a strawman. Merely poorly articulated; my apologies. > - copy & paste: the last time I wanted to copy & paste the formal syntax > of > any language was... about right around when dinosaurs went extinct. I've found it useful in helping (remote) colleagues and acquaintances less familiar with SQLite. > - search: I don't think there is any valid or interesting search of BNF > except for the keywords of the language, which *are* searchable with the > syntax diagrams. I've grown very used to using inline searching with my Web browser: it was very useful for me to highlight and isolate specific keywords in a given syntax definition, as they appear in context. > In all these "read-only" situations, you want the grammar to be very > fast to read and understand. > > This is where syntax diagrams excel: the cognitive load to understand > them is far less than BNF (for the majority of people). I must be unusual, then, because I find that a compact representation allows me to see the whole very quickly, while also being able to focus on a single part. Perhaps what trips me up about the current syntax diagrams is their two-dimentional nature: thereas the BNF was read linearly, options in the syntax diagrams are arranged perpendicular to the flow of the syntax, and once one runs out of horizontal space for the diagram (which seems to happen faster with such images and cannot be alleviated by increasing one's line length) the directions of the lines and arrows can get fairly difficult to decypher. That the BNF was expressed in colour-coded text helped considerably also: could this not be done with the syntax diagrams (assuming it can be done in such a way that they don't end up looking gaudy)? Obviously this is all a matter of personal preference, and my aim was not to start an argument by expressing mine, Jean-Denis. If I am among the minority, so be it. Fortunately I am by now sufficiently familiar with SQLite's syntax that the diagrams suffice when I need a refresher. :) -- J. King _______________________________________________ sqlite-users mailing list sqlite-users@sqlite.org http://sqlite.org:8080/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sqlite-users
