[bitc-dev] Syntax Poll: Scoping Syntax

[Jonathan S. Shapiro]

On Thu, Mar 5, 2009 at 3:08 PM,  <rtm443x at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm not sure I'm right to ask this but here goes...

Jan: you *should* ask. You should feel free to ask in general, but
especially in this case, because this is a case where inexperienced
gut responses are very likely to be revealing.


> Is using indenting an apparently good idea that has some unexpected
> downside?

I'm not rejecting indenting. I'm just trying to have one conversation at a time.

The two downsides that *I* see to indenting are:

1. In an expression language it's a little trickier to implement, and
I need to think that through before I "buy in". I am encouraged that
F# has made it work.
2. It seems to break cut and paste pretty badly, and it does seem to
make auto-indenting much harder. The emacs python mode, to me, has
some very quirky behavior.

Certainly if we *do* use spacing as block delimiter, we will also
support explicit delimiting.

> I understand that BitC is not going to have macros of any sort as part
> of the language...

Not in R1, but that is not off the table for a subsequent revision.


shap