Path: csiph.com!v102.xanadu-bbs.net!xanadu-bbs.net!usenet.blueworldhosting.com!feeder01.blueworldhosting.com!border2.nntp.dca1.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!news.iecc.com!.POSTED!nerds-end From: "BartC" Newsgroups: comp.compilers Subject: Re: Writing A Plain English Compiler Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2014 11:36:24 -0000 Organization: virginmedia.com Lines: 31 Sender: news@iecc.com Approved: comp.compilers@iecc.com Message-ID: <14-11-009@comp.compilers> References: <14-11-004@comp.compilers> <14-11-005@comp.compilers> NNTP-Posting-Host: news.iecc.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="UTF-8"; reply-type=original Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: miucha.iecc.com 1415384578 35078 2001:470:1f07:1126:0:676f:7373:6970 (7 Nov 2014 18:22:58 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@iecc.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2014 18:22:58 +0000 (UTC) Keywords: syntax, design Posted-Date: 07 Nov 2014 13:22:58 EST X-submission-address: compilers@iecc.com X-moderator-address: compilers-request@iecc.com X-FAQ-and-archives: http://compilers.iecc.com Xref: csiph.com comp.compilers:1417 "Joshua Cranmer p'" wrote in message > On 11/4/2014 3:50 PM, Gerry Rzeppa wrote: > The syntax seems to be what you are most proud of, but I rather suspect > that most of the people in this group don't care too much about > syntax. Actually, some of us are fussy about syntax, but while we might prefer something less terse than C++, it's not necessary to go as far as something that can be mistaken for English. About a year ago, I had an experimental project where I could write code in my own preferred syntax, and it would translate it to one of a number of well-known languages. It worked up to a point (I wrote some small benchmarks that were translated to C, Python, Lua, Lisp and one or two others. In some simple cases, exactly the same code would work unchanged on a number of different targets). But you still had to be aware of the different capabilities of each target. In the end, I preferred to create a proper language of my own (two in fact). It shows however that syntax is not that important. Well, provided it's not totally crazy, and that some agreement is reached as to what is allowed (otherwise no one can understand anyone else's code). Technically, it wouldn't be a problem to allow a small number of different styles (eg. C, Algol, Python, Lisp, maybe even Plain English) and use that style across all languages instead of needing to switch. -- Bartc