Two more languages, Ruby and Python, also use the MFC syntax for
optional arguments. Neither one appears to take any additional steps
to indicate [] as syntax elements vs. usage as an option marker.

Rick

On Sun, Aug 24, 2008 at 1:45 PM, Rick McGuire <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I did a little nosing around to see how some other languages that I
> know allow optional arguments and have [] in the syntax handle this in
> their docs (php and javascript).  php uses the MFC syntax conventions
> (ex here:  http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.opendir.php), while
> javascript does not mark arguments as optional, but uses a javadoc
> style of where each of the arguments is in a list and the description
> indicates whether the argument is optional or required
> (http://www.w3schools.com/jsref/jsref_substr.asp).  I think I'm sort
> of in favor of having the description and characteristic of each
> argument be documented in the javadoc-style rather than buried in the
> test the way it's traditionally been done with Rexx.  That's a much
> bigger effort to rework, and will probably get done incrementally
> unless we can find someone with enough ambition to start tackling that
> task.
>
> Rick
>
> On Sun, Aug 24, 2008 at 12:18 PM, Mark Miesfeld <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> On Sun, Aug 24, 2008 at 9:03 AM, David Ashley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>
>>> The problem with the MFC syntax is that he used a character for options (the
>>> square brackets) that were not a part of classic Rexx. With ooRexx I think
>>> it would be confusing since square brackets are a part of the character set.
>>>
>>> But I am open to other ideas and alternatives. I am not much of a fan of the
>>> railroad diagrams either.
>>
>> One option, that I'm just throwing out, might be to use a different
>> font and / or bolding for the optional and the required args.
>>
>> I'm not sure myself about that.  I'd have to see what it actually
>> looked like.  If it came out that the difference between the optional
>> and required args was visually distinctive, then it might be a viable
>> option.
>>
>> --
>> Mark Miesfeld
>>
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