Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!newstop!exodus!birdland!rberlin From: rberlin@birdlandEng.Sun.COM (Rich Berlin) Newsgroups: comp.unix.internals Subject: Re: X11 bashing Message-ID: <12231@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> Date: 25 Apr 91 18:43:42 GMT References: <28063@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> > Sender: news@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM Reply-To: rberlin@Eng.Sun.COM Organization: Sun Microsystems Lines: 52 In article , barnett@grymoire.crd.ge.com (Bruce Barnett) writes: |> In article <.VYA9Y1@xds13.ferranti.com> peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) writes: |> |> > You young kids today. You're spoiled by all this memory! |> |> Watch it! I cut my programming teeth on a Intel 4004 microprocessor! |> |> >Use whitespace and comments! |> |> I know how to use whitespace and comments. But does everyone else? |> |> Sometimes white spaces are detrimental. Having the entire |> routine on a single page is better than putting each command on it's |> own line and making the code three times longer. |> There are advantages to the lisp syntax. At least you can |> parse the code without knowing each command and without REQUIRING |> comments to document the operand stack. |> |> Forth/PostScript has some nice points as an interactive language. I |> wonder if some special characters can be added to the NeWS/PostScript |> language using a different font that allows a programmer to insert |> special brackets that have no function but do allow vi/emacs and the |> programmers to balance the stack parameters. |> -- |> Bruce G. Barnett barnett@crdgw1.ge.com uunet!crdgw1!barnett You could always define a couple of postscript "commands" which do nothing, e.g. /|- {} def /-| {} def and then mark things like this: |- 100 50 8 [1 0 0 -1 0 900] {<00>} false 3 -| colorimage Since all of the paren and brace type characters in PostScript are self-delimiting, you can't use them and are therefore forced to go to strange 2-character combos like the ones I suggested. You mentioned in an earlier message that you'd prefer prefix notation, and I think that would be possible if you defined -| properly and used the literal name (e.g. /colorimage) rather than the executable form. Youq should probably stick to postfix notation, however; defining -| so you could put the "colorimage" behind the operands would be messy to program and pretty slow. Aside from that, redefining the language in such a fundamental way is hard on anyone who has to come along afterward and read it. -- Rich