D front-end in D for D

[Timon Gehr]

On 07/14/2012 05:42 PM, Gor Gyolchanyan wrote:
> On Sat, Jul 14, 2012 at 7:36 PM, Timon Gehr <timon.gehr at gmx.ch
> <mailto:timon.gehr at gmx.ch>> wrote:
>
>     On 07/14/2012 05:24 PM, Gor Gyolchanyan wrote:
>
>         On Sat, Jul 14, 2012 at 7:15 PM, Timon Gehr <timon.gehr at gmx.ch
>         <mailto:timon.gehr at gmx.ch>
>         <mailto:timon.gehr at gmx.ch <mailto:timon.gehr at gmx.ch>>> wrote:
>
>              On 07/14/2012 04:44 PM, Gor Gyolchanyan wrote:
>
>                  ...
>
>                  For instance, everybody seems to love hard-wiring the
>         syntax
>                  into the
>                  language.
>
>
>              Insignificant example.
>
>              Every language _needs_ to have a standard source storage
>         format.
>
>
>         Syntax has nothing to do with standard source stage. Why won't the
>         standard source stage be binary,
>
>
>     Obviously syntax has to do with standard source storage. The syntax
>     definition can be binary just fine, eg:
>
>     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/__Binary_lambda_calculus
>     <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_lambda_calculus>
>
>
>
>         while leaving the human-written part (the syntax)
>
>
>     That is not the definition of _the_ syntax.
>
>         up to the writer?
>
>
>     This is already the case. Writing a parser that transforms your
>     custom syntax to the standard syntax is trivial.
>
>     The reason why almost nobody is doing this is the same as the reason
>     why almost everyone strives to stick to the same English orthography
>     rules.
>
>
> Comparison to English is invalid, because English is extensible. The
> terms and their meanings are completely up to the users of the language,

They need to agree on a common set of terms and meanings.

> while programming languages are pretty much fixed, while providing a
> handful of pre-defined abstractions.
>

As I already argued, programming languages are just as extensible. 
Depending on the amount of extensions, you might have to write your own
compiler.