[E-Lang] newbie syntax: picayune points from a prejudiced programmer

[Ben Laurie]

zooko@zooko.com wrote:
> * "The reason functions require parentheses is explained later in this
>   chapter."
> 
>   Don't bother.  I don't want to know the underlying design decisions.
>   All functions should be invoked as `barf()' because that is how C,
>   Java, Perl and Python do it.

Oh no it isn't! Brackets are optional in Perl (even if you have
arguments). This is not a good thing, IMO, not least because operator
precedence can bite you, e.g.:

open F,'somefile' || die "Can't open somefile";

will not die if the open fails, whereas:

open F,'somefile' or die "Can't open somefile";

or:

open(F,'somefile') || die "Can't open somefile";

will.

WTF anyone thinks this is a good idea is beyond me.

>   Oh wait a sec!
> 
> * "A parameterless function must have an open/close paren pair. Calls
>   to parameterless functions must also include the parens. This
>   contrasts with parameterless methods for objects described later,
>   which do not require empty parentheses either during definition or
>   when called."
> 
>   Ugh.  I wish that functions and methods looked identical except for
>   the presence of the object, and I wish that `()' were required on the
>   end of every single invokation, so that I can scan a page of text and
>   see the `(.*)' patterns and know where the invokations are.

Yes!

Cheers,

Ben.

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