From: "Hal E. Fulton" <hal9000@...>
Date: 2001-05-09T11:20:07+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:14889] Re: skipping arguments

----- Original Message -----
From: Sean Russell <ser@germane-software.com>
To: ruby-talk ML <ruby-talk@ruby-lang.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2001 10:05 AM
Subject: [ruby-talk:14873] Re: skipping arguments


> > My guess is that this would make parsing more difficult. After all, an
> > actual parameter can be an arbitrary expression.
>
> Unless it makes the statement more ambiguous, it wouldn't make parsing
more
> difficult.

I'm not good at thinking up examples like this. Here's a try.

With commas:        mymeth  a + b, - c, * d
Without commas:   mymeth  a + b - c * d

Have a go at that. Blanks become more significant than ever, and parentheses
more needed than ever.

> It might be possible, however, to allow for comma-less statements, the use
of
> which would incur a performance penalty, while using commas would give a
> performance boost.

I was once in favor of omitting commas. But the more I thought about it,
the more I didn't like it.

As for optional commas, I think I like that even less.

Just my opinion.

Hal