On Wed, 5 Dec 2007, Bill Page wrote:
|
| On 12/5/07, Gabriel Dos Reis wrote:
| >...
| > I hope we eventually don't get into proof by popularity.
| >
|
| No. I was replying only to your statement:
|
| I dislike the layout rule -- mainly because I only have had
| very negative experience with it, e.g.Python, Hashell,
| Makefile, etc.
|
| My point is that the fact you dislike it is also not a proof of anything.
I never intended to prove anything. Like, colors, syntax is something
we can only offer personal opinions on. Don't you agree?
| > | When you describe indented style as "lack of syntax" I can
| > | only imagine that your mind is fixed on a 1-dimensional linear
| > | conception of what constitutes syntax.
| >
| > Imagine harder.
| >
|
| That is up to you.
Well, it is not really up to me -- I can only suggest you imagine
harder, I cannot -force- you to demonstrate better imagination :-)
| > | When I write Python or Spad I definitely do *not* think of
| > | what I am doing as "counting what I do not see".
| >
| > I have to line up the sequence of statements, or else bad
| > things happen.
|
| Correct. What does that have to do with counting?
I have to count the number of leading blanks.
| "line up" is the
| same as the placement of parenthesis or braces in other languages.
No. In Java, for example, the the number of blank is before '{'
immaterial. That is not the case in Spad.
| > | I see very clearly and quickly the indentation without
| > | counting. This
| >
| > and those counting do not necessarily live in 1-dimensional
| > syntactic space.
|
| I don't understand this comment. Perhaps it is because I am without a
| definition of "syntactic space".
Perhaps.
| > | 2-dimensional view of the code takes better advantage of
| > | the human visual system then does a long linear string of
| > | characters.
| >
| > The layout rule is no near my conception of 2-dimensional
| > syntactic space.
| >
|
| When you say "layout" I think it is a synonym for 2-dimensional.
Maybe it is *your* synonym for 2-dimensional. I can assure you that
it is not mine. And in case it is your synonym for 2-dimensional,
please think (for a fraction of second) that I did not mean
2-dimensional, rather 'lining up'.
| When
| you say "rule" I think it has something to do with syntax (in the
| abstract sense).
Yes.
[...]
| > One example of `language' I embedded in Spad is the syntax
| > of Isar (of Isabelle/Isar).
| >
|
| Fascinating.
Well, the syntax thing isn't that fascinating. The real fascinating
thing is to get an Isabelle-like library (the semantics) in OpenAxiom
and see that it can mix well with the rest of the language. Some
people here are working on that.
-- Gaby
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