On 05/17/11 16:27, no.top.post / gmail.com wrote:
> OK, IIRC Pascal had 1 char for the tokeniser look-ahead,
> and 1 token look-ahead for the parser.

Yes. Undergraduate project I did in 1979.

> The superficial simplicity is deceptive.

The absence of explicit form (like missing method-call parentheses, for
example) allows the syntax to be used to construct very natural and
fluid DSLs, but opens up significant complexity in parsing.

Personally though, I favour explicit (external) DSLs, which is why I
maintain Treetop.

> That's probably why Ruby is so popular with the kiddies.

It's possible to get treatment for basic sociopathy, such as you exhibit.

FWIW, I've been in the industry for 30 years, and have led teams that
built software products that are still deployed on millions of enterprise
machines around the globe, running corporations with household names.
When I chose to learn Ruby (in 2002), I felt a renewed joy in programming
that I hadn't felt in years.  That was the experience of many here, BTW.
Call it childish if you will, but that's an ignorant point of view, and a
completely gratuitous comment, coming from an outsider.

Clifford Heath.