Re: [jamboost] Jam's space-sensitivity

From: Vladimir Prus (ghost_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-01-26 09:59:00

On Wednesday 26 January 2005 17:42, Toon Knapen wrote:
> Zbynek Winkler wrote:
> > Vladimir Prus wrote:
> >>Hi,
> >>all most of you know, Jam is sensitive to spaces. A typical first user's
> >> error is:
> >>
> >> exe a : a.cpp;
> >>
> >>The attached patch attempts to fix that. Now, whenever bjam sees ';'
> >> outside of quited string, it terminates the current token.
> >
> > It was my first user error too ;-). However, the rule is simple and
> > works for all cases - just put spaces everywhere. I think there is a
> > certain beauty to the simplicity. I'd suggest instead to detect this
> > particular case but return error saying that this is the most often
> > first time error and that spaces are needed everywhere. I think it would
> > help the users more in this way...
>
> I agree overall. Most important is that things are consistent. So you
> can't write:
>
> exe a:a.cpp;
>
> but instead need to write:
>
> exe a : a.cpp ;
>
> If now you drop the requirement of having a space between 'a.cpp' and
> ';', people will also forget about the space between 'a' and ':'. And if
> you can't drop the requirement of having a space between the latter I
> would not drop the first requirement either.

I see what you mean.

> And indeed, if you can detect the error it is better to give a clear
> error message and argument the reason why.

I think we can detect the problem. But again, only for the ';' symbol. So 
there's still some inconsistency.

- Volodya