From: Austin Ziegler <halostatue@...>
Date: 2006-10-11T02:20:32+09:00
Subject: Re: What is the reason for this syntax?

On 10/6/06, Kevin Olemoh <darkintent@gmail.com> wrote:
> What you say is valid and gets right to what I am really trying to get
> at with respect to the blocks the syntax rule is a bit too strict is
> all.  You have pointed out the distinction better than I was able to
> that is for sure.

It's not too strict. You're wanting something unreasonable. Most of us
(I think) don't want to have explicit expression terminators. If we
did, we'd be using Perl (which has explicit expression terminators).

The cost of not having explicit expression terminators is either a
much slower parser or one that has slightly stricter rules about where
certain things can appear. In your case:

   blah
   do |x, y|
   ...
   end

do |x,y| is not a valid expression. However, in the case of:

   blah
   1, 2
   do |x, y|
   ...
   end

1, 2 is a valid expression.

I'd much rather have the expressiveness Ruby gives with minor
inconveniences (which isn't "K&R style" as much as you'd like to
pretend it is) than needing to end expressions with a semicolon in all
cases.

You'll get over your desire soon enough.

-austin
-- 
Austin Ziegler * halostatue@gmail.com * http://www.halostatue.ca/
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               * austin@zieglers.ca