Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!uflorida!stat!fsu!loligo!pepke From: pepke@loligo (Eric Pepke) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard Subject: Re: "Initialize" for HyperTalk Keywords: wish list Message-ID: <382@fsu.scri.fsu.edu> Date: 27 Nov 89 14:53:29 GMT References: <1827@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu> Sender: news@fsu.scri.fsu.edu Reply-To: pepke@loligo.UUCP (Eric Pepke) Organization: Supercomputer Computations Research Institute Lines: 48 In article <1827@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu> jgsmith@watson.bcm.tmc.edu (James G. Smith) writes: > One thing I would like for Christmas is an "Initialize" command for >HyperTalk. I'm tired of scripting: > >put empty into temp1 >put empty into temp2 >put empty into temp3 > >when I could just say > >initialize temp1,temp2,temp3 "Initialize" really doesn't mean much in a general sense, as you don't really know what the best initial value for all applications is. On the other hand, how about something like put empty into temp1, temp2, temp3 which would be analogous to C's temp1 = temp2 = temp3 = NIL; It would be very easy to add to the HyperTalk, if HyperTalk be designed properly. The HC help uses a notation similar to BNF, so let's assume, just for laughs, that HyperTalk is somewhere specified using phrase structure rules*, and there exist rules like ::= put [before | into | after] ::= Then, you would just have to change the second rule to read ::= | , The only problem might be that commas are used elsewhere in the syntax. However, the parser generator** should be able to detect such ambiguities. Eric Pepke INTERNET: pepke@gw.scri.fsu.edu Supercomputer Computations Research Institute MFENET: pepke@fsu Florida State University SPAN: scri::pepke Tallahassee, FL 32306-4052 BITNET: pepke@fsu Disclaimer: My employers seldom even LISTEN to my opinions. Meta-disclaimer: Any society that needs disclaimers has too many lawyers. Cynical footnotes: * Ha! ** HAHA!