Re: Improving 'syntax error, unexpected $end, expecting kEND'?

On 22/10/2007, Paul Brannan <[e-mail]> wrote:

>
>   Syntax error: unexpected end of file; expecting matching 'end' for 'class Foo'
>
> but blindly putting an 'end' after bar() might be wrong; the user might
> have meant either:
>
>   class Foo
>     def foo
>       while true
>       end
>       return 42
>     end
>     bar()
>   end
>
> or:
>
>   class Foo
>     def foo
>       while true
>       end
>       return 42
>     end
>   end
>   bar()
>
> but it's impossible to know without probing the user's brain (though
> analyzing indentation could possibly help).
>

Yes, but the fact that you have unclosed class Foo hints quite a bit
where the error might be. If you have some testing code below the
class you can be quite sure that the missing end is inside the class
definition. If you have multiple classes you would get nested class
warning (or not) which should help you tell which one is broken. Even
then, saying which class is not closed is better than not giving  a
warning about nested classes - not everybody knows that.
Of course, the error might be in quite surprising places. But stating
what is the top unclosed element makes it certainly easier to
diagnose.

Thanks

Michal