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From: rst@cs.hull.ac.uk (Rob Turner)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: improve language by dropping ;
Message-ID: <5622.9103011021@olympus.cs.hull.ac.uk>
Date: 1 Mar 91 10:21:52 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Lines: 28

Randy Hudson writes:

> ... end-of-line is treated as a statement
>separator if the statement could end there. That is,
>
>      a := b
>      c := d
>
>is two statements, since "a := b" is a complete statement, but
>
>      a := b +
>           c
>
>is one statement, since a statement can't end with "+".

This is similar to the way BCPL parses programs.

Let's carry it further, though. What about

       a := b c := d

A parser could read in the "c" after the "b", and, instead of issuing
an error message, assume that the previous statement has ended.

I acknowledge that debugging programs would become a lot harder if
this technique was used. Let's stick with semicolons.

Rob