segall@caip.RUTGERS.EDU (Ed Segall) (10/15/86)
Here's a suggestion about the role of punctuation in improving
readability and reducing errors: I think that the reason semicolons,
etc cause problems is that 1) they don't stand out very well, so it's
not obvious when they're in proper vs. improper places, 2) they can be
confused with each other upon casual reading, and 3) (perhaps most
importantly) they don't have the nice symmetric appearance that
brackets do. Anyone who has used a programming interface like
Macintosh Pascal knows that the same function performed by the
punctuation marks can be done more nicely by font changes and
indentation. This, I believe, can preserve all the information
provided by punct. marks in a *much* more natural, readable way.
Substituting { and } for begin and end is one method I've seen to
help with this. Something similar can be done for statements (see
prev posting on s-expressions). BTW, there's no reason that you can't
have a visual programming environment preprocess a program into the
cryptic, punctuation-laden languages preferred by compilers.
(sorry - I didn't see the previous discussion on the subject. Hope
this is not a rehash)
Ed Segall