Re: Spirit syntax -- another suggestion.

From: dg_at_[hidden]
Date: 2001-05-31 10:30:09

--- In boost_at_y..., "joel de guzman" <isis-tech_at_m...> wrote:
> From: <dg_at_s...>:
> 
> > --- In boost_at_y..., "joel de guzman" <isis-tech_at_m...> wrote:
> > 
> > > 
> > > Also, based on user feedback (including novices), people find
the
> > prefix 
> > > kleene star (*) and the prefix positive iterator (+) simple to
> > comprehend.
> > 
> > I think that many people would find prefix Kleene closure
operations
> > confusing. 
> 
> Hello Dale Gerdemann,
> 
> Would you like to explain why?
> 
> I can never understand why someone who can comprehend
> complex abstractions, build intricate applications and frameworks,
> communicate on such a high technical level, absorb all the syntax
> rules of c++, find *a versus a* "confusing", while, on the other
> hand, a 'newbie' find it to be not confusing at all. 
> 
> I argue that it is *not* about clarity of syntax at all. It is,
plain
> and simply, about personal preference. Nothing more.
> 

It's a bit like writing fractions with the denominator on top. Nothing
really wrong with the idea, but it goes strongly against convention,
and I guarantee it would confuse intelligent people. Or try learning
German numbers, where you have to say drei und zwanzig instead of 23.
Why do otherwise intelligent learners of German sometimes get their
numbers backwards?

Anyway, if you already have the syntax a(0,more), then you could save
'*' for some other use. After all, there are lots of finite state
operations a person might want to define (again I refer for example to
XFST: www.xrce.xerox.com/research/mltt/fst/fssyntax.html), and C++
offers only a limited range of operators for you to play with.

-- Dale Gerdemann