From: Joel VanderWerf <vjoel@...>
Date: 2001-10-27T04:21:54+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:23495] Re: Issues with white space [was Re: Bruce Eckel's  opinion of Ruby]

Sean Russell wrote:
> 
> ts wrote:
> 
> >>>>>> "S" == Sean Russell <ser@efn.org> writes:
> >
> > S> Raja S. wrote:
> >>> puts( (    8
> >>> + 20) / 2) => 10
> >
> > S> This is really, really bizarre.  Can anyone explain to me why this is
> > true? S> A parse error, I could understand... but 10?
> >
> > pigeon% ruby -e 'puts((8 ; + 20) / 2)'
> > 10
> > pigeon%
> ....
> >  because ruby has seen `;' (or newline) this was interpreted as a block of
> >  instructions, and the block return the value of the last statement.
> 
> No, I understand this, and it makes sense... why isn't it a parse error?
> It doesn't seem like you should be able to drop arbitrary parens in the
> source just anywhere you please.  IE,
> 
>    +20) / 2)
> 
> should produce a parse error, n'est pas?  Why, then, should the above code
> be interpreted as it is?  Parenthesis should have the highest precidence of
> any element... don't they?
> 
> --- SER

C does something similar:

main()
{
  printf("%d\n", (8, + 20) / 2);
}

The difference is just that, in Ruby, newline is an expression
separator, whereas in C it is not.

--
Joel VanderWerf                          California PATH, UC Berkeley
mailto:vjoel@path.berkeley.edu                     Ph. (510) 231-9446
http://www.path.berkeley.edu                       FAX (510) 231-9512