Re: The semicolon habit (was: Q: Definition of a scripting lang.)

Stefan Monnier <monnier@di.epfl.ch> writes:
      ... Wouldn't it be so much easier to store your source as a syntax-tree ?


I theory I agree, but practice seems to be lagging a long way behind
(examples to the contrary are welcome). One of the thorniest problems
is what to do with comments i.e. what syntactical construct to you
attach a comment to? If you have the luxury of working with a new
language these issues can be taken into account in the language
design, but with legacy code/languages things are tougher without
resorting to style guides and their enforcement. Once you do that
you'll find you've solved most of the problem without the need for
syntax tree storage.
[Editing a syntax tree is a pain, too, since editing operations you do on
source text rarely map cleanly to syntax changes. -John]
--

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