Re: Re: Approaching the First Draft [of a language spec]

BTW, most standards have examples for most things. Andi At 05:42 PM 11/20/00 -0800, Rasmus Lerdorf wrote:

    I don't think though that the immediate target here should be
    the end-user. Let's define the semantics clearly and
    unambigously. We can add user-level descriptions later.

I don't care about the sequence. If you feel more comfortable only writing the syntactical semantics part, fine. But before we unleash this thing even as a first draft, it needs to have end-user readable stuff. I mean, in my little example, there is additional information in the explanation that I don't know how to describe using BNF. I mean, how would you describe this: while(bool) expr1; expr2; vs. while(bool): expr1; expr2; endwhile; In the first case expr2 is not executed within the loop and in the second case it is. There probably is some way to indicate in the BNF that the : syntax implies statement grouping, but chances are it would be easy for someone to misinterpret that and having a little note that goes along with the BNF that clarifies this with an example is not just catering to the end user, it is also for the compiler weenie. We are all end users when it comes down to it and something can never be made too clear. -Rasmus -- PHP Development Mailing List <http://www.php.net/> To unsubscribe, e-mail: php-dev-unsubscribe@lists.php.net For additional commands, e-mail: php-dev-help@lists.php.net To contact the list administrators, e-mail: php-list-admin@lists.php.net

--- Andi Gutmans <andi@zend.com> http://www.zend.com/