From: raja@... (Raja S.)
Date: 2001-10-28T21:39:48+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:23677] Re: Issues with white space [was Re: Bruce Eckel's opinion of Ruby]

Sean Russell <ser@germane-software.com> writes:

>Raja S. wrote:

>> 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.

>I just don't get this.  I mean, I see what is 
>happening, but I fail to see any reason *why* this would work this way.

>(8 20) is a syntax error.  Why wouldn't (8 ; 20) be one, too?  In what 
>situation would (8 ; 20) be usefull?

Saying (expr_1 ; expr_2)  will be as useful as defining:

def foo
   expr_1
   expr_2
end

only when expr_1 has a side-effect.

If expr_1 is side-effect free (as in ( 8; 10) a smart compiler should be
able to optimize it out.

Raja