From: joel de guzman (joel_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-05-25 23:53:48
From: "Greg Colvin":
> None of the above bother me, but you are the designer. EBNF
> is far enough away from algebra that I don't expect perfect
> analogies, and infix + has long been used for concatenation.
I disagree. EBNF operators are set operators on strings.
A parser is a recognizer for a *set* of strings.
>
> What we really need is this:
>
> http://www.research.att.com/~bs/whitespace98.pdf
>
> ;->
Revolutional!!! Especially when the author gets into unicode.
I'd say 1 or 2 decades more.
> And don't forget
>
> a*b*c
>
> Commutative for numbers, but not matrices, and a common
> substitute in computer languages for
>
> a b c
>
> in algebra. Nice high precedence too.
Clashes with the Kleene star.
Thanks for your comments.
Joel de Guzman