From: David Alan Black <dblack@...>
Date: 2001-10-27T07:03:25+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:23543] Re: Issues with white space [was Re: Bruce Eckel's opinion of Ruby]

Hello --

On Sat, 27 Oct 2001, Raja S. wrote:

>
> > 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.


Here's another fun variant:

  candle:~/hacking/ruby$ ruby -e 'a = ( 10
  % 9 ); p a'
  "9"

:-)


David

-- 
David Alan Black
home: dblack@candle.superlink.net
work: blackdav@shu.edu
Web:  http://pirate.shu.edu/~blackdav