The prefix symbol

[Jonathan Ross]

Not nearly as cool as http://www2.research.att.com/~bs/whitespace98.pdf ;-)

On 21 Jun 2011, at 16:45, Lawrence Kesteloot wrote:

Okay so this is 2011. Can we use the Unicode lambda symbol? Of course
also support some digraph, like ,\

IDEs would adapt instantly, as would window-based editors like gvim.
Terminal text editors might have problems. Then there are possible
problems with source file encoding ambiguity (when not specified
explicitly).

So yeah there would be a bunch of problems, but if we could solve
them, how *cool* would that be?

Lawrence



On Tue, Jun 21, 2011 at 8:27 PM, maurizio cimadamore
<maurizio.cimadamore at oracle.com<mailto:maurizio.cimadamore at oracle.com>> wrote:
On 21/06/2011 17:47, Pavel Minaev wrote:
Isn't this only true for statement lambdas? What about Strawman
expression syntax, which doesn't have ')' '{'?
I was assuming a simplified version of Strawman (that has been discussed
in this mailing list) in which both statements and expressions have the
'{' '}'.

Maurizio

Either way, it seems that it would require infinite lookahead to parse?

On Tue, Jun 21, 2011 at 9:18 AM, Maurizio Cimadamore
<maurizio.cimadamore at oracle.com<mailto:maurizio.cimadamore at oracle.com>
<mailto:maurizio.cimadamore at oracle.com>> wrote:

    On 21/06/11 17:14, Sam Pullara wrote:
    > Both the $ and _ are valid method names so this would likely not
    work.
    This wouldn't be much of a problem, as the Strawman syntax cannot
    possibly be confused with a method call - the compiler would need to
    look for the 'special' token sequence ')' '{' after the '_' or '$'.

    Maurizio
    > Sam
    >
    > On Jun 21, 2011, at 2:57 AM, Maurizio Cimadamore wrote:
    >
    >> On 21/06/11 10:42, Milos Nikic wrote:
    >>> Well since you are mentioning, i think it is not  unreasonable
    to say that
    >>> $ could be on this list too.
    >>> $ is not very different than #, in that java web developers
    use # for jsf
    >>> based expressions, and $ for jsp ones.
    >>>
    >>> $(x) { return x + 1; }
    >>> ${x ->   x + 1}
    >> What about '_' as in:
    >>
    >> _(x) { return x + 1; }
    >>
    >>
    >> It's less intrusive than # and it has that 'unnamed' feeling that I
    >> think fits well in this case...
    >>
    >> Maurizio
    >>> Regards,
    >>> Milos
    >>>
    >>> On Tue, Jun 21, 2011 at 11:35 AM, Stephen Colebourne
    >>> <scolebourne at joda.org<mailto:scolebourne at joda.org> <mailto:scolebourne at joda.org>>wrote:
    >>>
    >>>> Prefix character summary after 15 hours:
    >>>>
    >>>> Use a #
    >>>>   #(x) { return x + 1; }
    >>>>   #{x ->   x + 1}
    >>>>
    >>>> Use a ^
    >>>>   ^(x) { return x + 1; }
    >>>>   ^{x ->   x + 1}
    >>>>
    >>>> Use a \ (from another thread)
    >>>>   \(x) { return x + 1; }
    >>>>   \{x ->   x + 1}
    >>>>
    >>>> (I'm not listing keywords that have been suggested elsewhere)
    >>>>
    >>>> Issues around typing the various characters on different
    keyboards
    >>>> have been raised.
    >>>>
    >>>> Once again, does anyone have a character they prefer more
    than one of
    >>>> the three above that they want to be considered? Remember,
    this isn't
    >>>> a vote, or a discussion thread, but a "gathering the options"
    thread.
    >>>>
    >>>> Stephen
    >>>>
    >>>>
    >>>> On 20 June 2011 18:54, Stephen
    Colebourne<scolebourne at joda.org<mailto:scolebourne at joda.org> <mailto:scolebourne at joda.org>>
    wrote:
    >>>>> The four syntax families split into two types, those with a
    prefix
    >>>>> symbol and those without.
    >>>>>
    >>>>> The prefix symbol is commonly mentioned as #:
    >>>>>
    >>>>> #(x) { return x + 1; }
    >>>>> #{x ->   x + 1}
    >>>>>
    >>>>>
    >>>>> *** If you have a strong desire to see any symbol other than #
    >>>>> considered then please respond to this thread. ***
    >>>>>
    >>>>> - Your reply MUST specify the symbol
    >>>>> - Your reply MUST give a brief justification
    >>>>> - Your reply MUST repeat the two examples above using your
    preferred
    >>>> symbol
    >>>>> - You SHOULD try to ensure that your alternate symbol choice
    would
    >>>>> parse acceptably
    >>>>> - You MAY reply to suggest a keyword, however you should
    expect that
    >>>>> to be rejected
    >>>>>
    >>>>> Thread rules:
    >>>>> - Only reply if you prefer your alternate symbol to #
    >>>>> - To discuss something, change the thread title
    >>>>> - Don't reply just to say "I don't want a prefix symbol"
    >>>>> - Responding with a symbol suggestion doesn't preclude your
    first
    >>>>> choice actually being "no prefix symbol"
    >>>>>
    >>>>> For example, my preferred choice of prefix symbol is #, thus
    I should
    >>>>> not respond to this thread!
    >>>>>
    >>>>> Stephen
    >>>>> (this is an experiment to see if we can focus on one particular
    >>>>> discussion element at a time)
    >>>>>
    >>









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