Torsten Anders wrote:
On 14.03.2006, at 17:02, Andreas Franke wrote:
Torsten Anders wrote:
Still, what is gained if you are allowed to replace _/*SomeThing*/ by
_SomeThing, in case the latter is equivalent to _?
Four characters. If you operate on an 80-chars-per-line style for
source code, that's significant :-)
It is probably rather unwise as a non-computer scientist to stick your
neck out and argue here.
I would always hesitate before extending the core of Oz. Is it really
worth to extend the Oz syntax to save these four characters (in case _X
is equivalent to _) or even to introduce some slight semantical variant
(in case _X is a special form of X which does not trigger certain
warnings)?
To give a counter-example: it would save me much more typing, if it
would be legal to replace the common
proc {Square X Y} Y=X*X end
by something like
p {Square X} Y=X*X e
Saves 5 characters ;-) And reducing keywords like these would really
reduce my code, because they pop up all over the place. Just kidding...
I know you are just kidding, but I want to point out that is not just
about the 4 characteres that Andreas wants to avoid. It's also about
readibility.
_Something looks more readable than _/*Something*/
proc {Foo Id _/*Name*/ _/*Address*/} ... end
is less nicer than
proc {Foo Id _Name _Address} ... end
on the contrary
proc {Foo Id _ _} ... end
is shorter, but what are those two variables after Id?
and what about
p {Foo Id _ _} ... e
:D
cheers
Boriss
On the other hand, I actually very much like the idea of saving the
amounts of typing. But if it requires to extend the core of Oz itself,
then I would opt for the big change, i.e. for introducing something like
Lisp macros instead. With such a means, everyone of us can then easily
tailor the Oz syntax according needs.
Yes, I know that Denys gave that a go and it was turned down in the end.
I also know that macros are a two edged sword: no first-class values,
makes debugging harder etc.
Nevertheless, what Denys did is still there
(http://www.mozart-oz.org/documentation/macro/node1.html) and even still
works in 1.3.1. Something like this would really save me tremendous
amounts of typing at times. I am not using it, though, because I expect
this functionality be broken at any time.
Wouldn't it be worth discussing macros for Oz again?
Best,
Torsten
--
Torsten Anders
Sonic Arts Research Centre
Queen's University Belfast (UK)
www.torsten-anders.de
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