Tony Arcieri wrote:
> On Thu, May 28, 2009 at 6:52 PM, James Britt <james.britt / gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> What was the reason for remove indentation sensitivity?
> 
> 
> I was using a Python-style lexer in conjunction with a Ruby-like (almost)
> pure expression grammar, and running into the issues I've outlined in this
> thread regarding indent blocks in expressions.
> 
> I detailed many of the problems in this blog post:
> 
> http://unlimitednovelty.com/2009/03/indentation-sensitivity-post-mortem.html
> 
> I'm surprised by how well the solutions others are coming up for this are
> working.  The script J Haas found just throws regexes at the problem (and
> removes any degree of formal decidability), however the RubyLexer approach
> sounds interesting.


It seems that without formal decidability you'll end up coding yourself 
into a corner, where you can't change or add anything because of the 
side-effects.

> That said, I have no regrets with ditching indentation sensitivity.  If
> anything it seemed to alienate people who would otherwise be interested, and
> now Reia has the advantage of looking nearly identical to Ruby.  Porting
> Ruby programs to Reia programs is now substantially easier.
> 


Very cool!

-- 
James Britt

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