foo!(bar) ==> foo{bar} ==> foo[bar] (just Brackets)

[Bruno Medeiros]

Bill Baxter wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 16, 2008 at 12:24 AM, Jesse Phillips
> <jessekphillips at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:24:46 +0100, Bruno Medeiros wrote:
>>
>>> Jarrett Billingsley wrote:
>>>> On Tue, Oct 14, 2008 at 6:43 PM, Bruno Medeiros
>>>> <brunodomedeiros+spam at com.gmail> wrote:
>>>>> Don wrote:
>>>>>> Denis Koroskin wrote:
>>>>>>> On Wed, 08 Oct 2008 18:22:21 +0400, superdan <super at dan.org> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Walter Bright Wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Dee Girl wrote:
>>>>>>>>>> I did not follow this group recent. School started. Sorry! I just
>>>>>>>>>> see now and please add my vote if possible. I start with D recent
>>>>>>>>>> and I remember beginning. foo!(bar) was not pleasant. Like forced
>>>>>>>>>> convention with a bad char. And friends I show code never like
>>>>>>>>>> it. It is first thing they say why they do not like D. For me
>>>>>>>>>> foo{bar} better idea. Thank you, Dee Girl
>>>>>>>>> What do your friends think of { } ?
>>>>>>>> School started. Every one so busy now. But I think does not matter
>>>>>>>> any more ^_^
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I want to make little idea. Sorry if idea mentioned before (I did
>>>>>>>> not read every thread). I think we can look square brackets []. Let
>>>>>>>> me explain why.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Paren () is over used in C and in D. Any expression can be in ().
>>>>>>>> And adding () is possible in many cases. But it is not same with
>>>>>>>> []. For example a:(b) is ambiguous but a:[b] is not. So there are
>>>>>>>> many signs possible after symbol and before [. They are:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> ~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * - + = | \ / , < . > ? :
>>>>>> Not all of them work. Here's a few examples:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>    enum { d= 3, e = 7 }
>>>>>>    int [] a=[1,2];
>>>>>>    bool c;
>>>>>>    auto k=[e]; // kills =
>>>>>>    a ~= c?[d]:[e]; // kills ?
>>>>>>    int [] f = c?k:[e]; // kills :
>>>>>>    if (f>[e]) {}   // kills <
>>>>>>    if (f<[e]) {}   // kills >
>>>>>>    auto g = (k,[d]); // kills comma
>>>>>>    auto h = k~[d]; // kills ~
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Array ops will kill + - * / & | % ^
>>>>>> Suddenly the list looks pretty short. !@#$\.
>>>>> Hum, what about brackets without any prefix character at all?
>>>>>
>>>>>  Vector[int, 2] foo;
>>>>>  List[Vector[int, 2]] bar;
>>>>>  int[3] a = [1, 2, 3]; // array literal here int[int] map;
>>>>>  alias DenseMatrix[num] PulType;
>>>>>  alias SparseRowsMatrix[num, HashSparseVector] PuuType; alias
>>>>>  BiMap[uint, Tuple[uint, uint], BiMapOptions.lhDense] DicType; int var
>>>>>  = a[2]; // array indexing here
>>>>>
>>>>> Hum... doesn't look bad visually. In fact it seems to fit quite nice
>>>>> with how associative arrays, and even normal arrays, are declared.
>>>>> Hum, yes, I'm personally liking this a lot.
>>>>>
>>>>> But does it have any ambiguities? Hum, can't think of any off-hand. If
>>>>> an identifier appears before a bracket list, it could either be a
>>>>> template instantiation, or an array indexation. But the syntax of both
>>>>> is the same, so it doesn't need to be distinguished in the parser.
>>>>>
>>>>> Waddya think, was this discussed before?
>>>> Erm,
>>>>
>>>> SomeClass[3] a; // template or array?
>>> What about it? It doesn't matter for the parser to know if SomeClass is
>>> a template or array, it can just keep parsing. Its not like the "class A
>>> : B { }" where parsing would continue differently if B was a template
>>> instead of a type.
>> Personally, it is important that I can parse it as a template or array. I
>> prefer the !() syntax, it makes it incredibly easy to find creations of a
>> template.
> 
> I think you may be right.  If nothing technical against it emerges,
> the human will likely be the weak link here.
> 
> More than SomeClass[3], this is the case that worries me:
> 
>    Identifier1[Identifier2]  x;
> 
> is it an AA or a templated type?
> 
> --bb

True, you'd have to follow Identifier1 to find out. But that is just a 
hover of the mouse away. :)

-- 
Bruno Medeiros - Software Developer, MSc. in CS/E graduate
http://www.prowiki.org/wiki4d/wiki.cgi?BrunoMedeiros#D