From: raja@... (Raja S.)
Date: 2001-10-27T04:33:51+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:23497] Re: Issues with white space [was Re: Bruce Eckel's opinion of Ruby]


> 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?

You are right that parens have the highest precedence, but no parens are
being dropped:

(    8               
  + 20 )   is identical to  ( 8  ; +20 ) to the Ruby interpreter.  

No syntax error. 

But (   8
     * 20)   is ( 8 ; * 20 )  given the lack of a unary interpretation to

'*' it is a syntax error.

Raja