Re: 4GL language design, was Writing a recursive descent parser in C

david.thompson1@worldnet.att.net says...
> Alex Colvin <alexc@world.std.com> wrote :
> ....
> > Then there was OCCAM, where indentation determines block
> > structure. I've never haad a chance to try this, and I'm not sure how
> > to implement it, but it looks like a nice idea. In most cases the
> > programmer indents, but the compiler ignores it and uses other
> > signs. Inevitably, the programmer and the compiler disagree.
> >
> I have heard Python also does this.


Python does indeed do that. I think it's one of Python's best
features. As an instructor of programming I find that it's like
pulling teeth to get my students to indent their code sensibly (I'm
not sure why this is). With a language that uses indentation to
control the block structure the students would *have* to indent
consistently or the program just wouldn't work. I like that. :-)


I'm not sure how Python handles tab characters. I could imagine a
student using a mixture of tabs and spaces to do an indentation such
that it looks like the same indentation as the previous line but
isn't. That would be a hard to find bug, I should think.


Peter

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