radzy@calma.uucp (Tim Radzykewycz) (09/23/85)
>Subject: Re: Operator Precedence >> Another interesting(?) idea would be to base operator binding on >> spacing: ... >> ... That is, >> a <- b+c * 4 >> would be equivalent to >> a <- (b + c) * 4 >> (Personally I think this is worse than no precedence). >I'd hate to program in that, but that's certainly an interesting idea. Then >you could indicate compound and continued statements by indentation: ...example elided >Any programming languages actually do this, by the way? First, I've heard of a language which does statement grouping by indention. It was developed in U.K., and got as far as the "Exotic Language of the Month Club" of the November 1984 issue of _Computer_ _Language_. It's main claim is concurrency, but it does use indention instead of 'begin..end' or '{..}'. Personally, although both these ideas are "interesting", I think they both stink as an *ENFORCED* feature of the language. Stylistic goals are great, but making them a part of the language is going a little far. -- Tim (radzy) Radzykewycz calma!radzy@ucbvax.ARPA ucbvax!calma!radzy