From: Rick DeNatale <rick.denatale@...>
Date: 2007-10-26T23:41:24+09:00
Subject: Re: Fluent programming in Ruby

On 10/26/07, Mark Vander Voord <mvandervoord@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> > > For a human reader it is from my viewpoint better that the
> > > actual possibility...
> > >
> > > puts "hello".
> > >      upcase.
> > >      reverse.
> > >      slice(0)   #  => prints "O"
> > >
>
> I don't believe this to be true.  In normal written language, we put a
> period at the end of a statement to signify we have completed a thought.
> That is the opposite of what we are doing here, where you want to continue
> onto the next statement.  From my point of view, a period at the end of the
> statement would be misleading.

Actually I believe that Wolfgang actually meant "better THAN the
actual possibility" which makes sense whereas "that the actual
possibility" without a consequence doesn't.

In any event, He's also pointing out that

puts "hello".
    upcase.
    reverse.
    slice(0)

Is interpreted as a single statement by the current Ruby parser which
looks past a line break to complete an incomplete expression, which
shows that despite English punctuation rules '.' is NOT a full-stop in
Ruby, just the opposite.

That said. I'm kind of ambivalent about this change.  The '.' is hard
to see.  Especially for us old folks.  Maybe we should reserve the
first 5 characters for a sequence number, and the 6th to indicate a
continuation by putting C there. <G>

-- 
Rick DeNatale

My blog on Ruby
http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/