Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!ukc!edcastle!edcogsci!cogsci!miles From: miles@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Miles Bader) Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc Subject: Re: improve world by dropping languages with ; Message-ID: Date: 27 Feb 91 12:14:40 GMT References: <21900005@inmet> <21733@yunexus.YorkU.CA> <1991Feb22.211643.12151@linus.mitre.org> Sender: miles@cogsci.ed.ac.uk Organization: HCRC, University of Edinburgh Lines: 30 In-reply-to: john@mingus.mitre.org's message of 22 Feb 91 21:16:43 GMT john@mingus.mitre.org (John D. Burger) writes: > oz@yunexus.yorku.ca (Ozan Yigit) writes: > >dww@math.fu-berlin.de (Debora Weber-Wulff) writes: > > > >>Now what do I do about statements like > >> > >> a := b > >> + c ? > How can anyone stand to program in a language where whitespace matters > in this way? Why should the status of my code depend on whitespace? rcd@ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn) writes: > Probably people don't mind programming in a language where whitespace > matters because they also write in natural languages where whitespace > matters. > I think it would be a step forward to move human and compiler > interpretation of code closer together. The quoted code fragment above used whitespace (extra indentation) to indicate that the statement was continued. Don't try and automagically guess the programmer's intent using such traditionally fuzzy things like whitespace unless you can do more than a half-assed job of it (like the viable-EOS/EOL rule). -Miles -- -- Miles Bader -- HCRC, University of Edinburgh -- miles@cogsci.ed.ac.uk