In article <Pine.LNX.4.10.10101271630390.18547-100000 / beta4.com>,
Avi Bryant  <avi / beta4.com> wrote:
>
>
>On Sun, 28 Jan 2001, Harry Ohlsen wrote:
>
>> While it's nice that you can do this, can someone explain why it is
>> that the Ruby parser can't work out that a statement is not finished,
>> as, say, a C++ or Java parser can?
>
>Very simple - C++ and Java make you end every statement with a semicolon.
>This makes parsing much *easier* for them - Ruby has to do a little more
>work, but it can't read your mind...
>

I think the answer is more complex than that and has to do with the
allowed language constructs (as pointed out in a previous post).  As a
counter example, Eiffel does not require statements to end with a
semi-colon and also allows a statement to be spread out over several lines
(without a \).
-- 
Jim Cochrane
jtc / dimensional.com