> On May 10, 2018, at 8:28 AM, Gavin Bierman <gavin.bier...@oracle.com> wrote: > > >> On 9 May 2018, at 00:08, Dan Smith <daniel.sm...@oracle.com> wrote: >> . . . >> 14.11: somewhat arbitrarily, '->' is considered an "operator" while ':' is >> considered a "separator". Should match that terminology. > > Where is ‘:’ called a separator? I used the word ‘operator’ which is the > terminology from JLS§3.12. I’d be happy to use other terminology (I wanted to > avoid saying token.)
Section 3.11 lists the separators, which include ; and :: but NOT :. As Gavin points out, plain : is listed as an operator in Section 3.12. (It must be admitted that this distinction was originally somewhat arbitrary. Back in 1995, we listed plain : as an operator because it is part of the ternary operator ? :, even though it also functions more as a separator in constructions such as statement labels and case labels.) —Guy
