Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!doug-merritt
From: doug-merritt@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Draco keywords
Message-ID: <6603@cup.portal.com>
Date: 17 Jun 88 14:48:35 GMT
References: <612@myrias.UUCP> <1922@hubcap.UUCP>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
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XPortal-User-Id: 1.1001.4407

Chris Gray wrote:
[ in regard to "if/fi" etc in Draco ]
>Well said.  After using Draco for even a few weeks I found it to be
>quite natural.  I'm always amused by the religious arguments that ensue
>when people are faced with something a little different.

Agreed. As a professional language designer, I certainly have my own
personal preferences, and they do not include reversed keywords. But
I would not condemn an entire language for it; this is a very small
esthetic issue. The lingo for such things is "syntactic sugar"...
features of the syntax that sweeten the language for some, and of
course sour it for others. You can't please everybody.

Far more important than such esthetic issues are questions like what
semantic features are supported, and whether the syntax supports
the semantics well. Using "fi" does in fact indicate the semantics
adequately. I don't use Draco so this is just an abstract comment on
my part.

My *real* preference is for using punctuation when possible to minimize
the number of keywords, like C. Or like my own "Valhalla", or like
the language "Kiss" published in Computer Language a few years ago.
	Doug
--
      Doug Merritt        ucbvax!sun.com!cup.portal.com!doug-merritt
                      or  ucbvax!eris!doug (doug@eris.berkeley.edu)
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