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World: r3wp

[REBOL Syntax] Discussions about REBOL syntax

BrianH
17-Feb-2012
[239]
One interesting thing is that R2 and R3 have binary parsers, not 
text parsers. The difference doesn't matter that much in R2 but in 
R3 it matters a lot.
Steeve
17-Feb-2012
[240]
try this in R2
[a<] and [a<  ]
BrianH
17-Feb-2012
[241x2]
All of the syntax characters in R3 fit in the ASCII range. That is 
why there are no Unicode delimiters, such as the other space characters.
Yup, that is why he made the tradeoff.
Steeve
17-Feb-2012
[243]
Annoying syntax... I take my pause for now
Ladislav
18-Feb-2012
[244x7]
the "+<tag>" case differs from the "-<tag>" case!
#[[BrianH
>> load "a<a>"
== [a <a>]
Looks good to me.
]]BrianH


Well, it does not look problematic at the first sight, but it does 
look problematic once we compare it to:

>> load "1.2.3<t>"
** Syntax error: invalid "tuple" -- "1.2.3<t>"
** Where: to case load
** Near: (line 1) 1.2.3<t>
My opinion is that there needs to be a "common syntax rule", (either 
allowing #"<" as a syntax separator character or not)
Similarly the above

    load "+<tag>"

and

    load "-<tag>"

look like an inconsistency in syntax.
When compared to

    load ".<tag>"
I wrote

    http://issue.cc/r3/1903
    http://issue.cc/r3/1904
    http://issue.cc/r3/1905
Regarding these above three. What are the preferences of potential 
users:

a) reflect all these "as is" in the syntax.r code
b) do something else?
Steeve
18-Feb-2012
[251x2]
We could produce several documents

(Btw I don't think it's a practical idea to continue further mixing 
R2 and R3 syntax)
- R3 pure expected syntax (without glitch, inconsistency)
- R2 pure expected syntax (without glitch, inconsistency)
- R3 with glichs
- R2 with glichs
Wowww mostly forgot.
in R3 [#] is a shortcut for [none]
Ladislav
18-Feb-2012
[253]
I guess that nobody uses that.
Steeve
18-Feb-2012
[254]
issue-char-R2: complement union charset "@" termination-char

issue-char-R3: complement union charset "@$%:<>\" termination-char
Ladislav
18-Feb-2012
[255]
OK, I will put it in
Steeve
18-Feb-2012
[256x7]
correction:

issue-char-R3: complement union charset "@$%:<>\#" termination-char
I use a function to automate the testing of the charsets
test-syn: func [
	chars [bitset!] sample [string!]
	/local c l t? ci
][
	t?: type? first to-block sample
	repeat i 256 [
		c: replace copy sample "?" ci: to-string to-char i - 1
		if find ci chars [
			if error? l: try [to-block c] [
				l: disarm l
				l: reform [l/id l/arg1 l/arg2]
			]
			if any [1 <> length? l t? <> type? l/1][
					print [i - 1 mold to-char i - 1 mold l attempt [type? l/1]]
			]
		]
	]
]
example for issue!
>> test-syn issue-char "#?"
it prints out all the errors
works with R2 or R3
but you need to have [disarm] when used with R3.
I use this defintion:
>> unless value? 'disarm [disarm: func[e][:e]]
Steeve
19-Feb-2012
[263x3]
issue-syntax-R3: [#"#" some issue-char-R3 termination]
issue-syntax-R2: [#"#" any issue-char-R2 termination]
tag-char-beg: complement union whitespace charset {=<>"^@}
tag-char: complement charset {">^@}


tag-syntax-R3: [#"<" [not #"]" tag-char-beg | quoted-string] any 
[some tag-char | quoted-string] #">" termination]

tag-syntax-R2: [#"<" [tag-char-beg | quoted-string] any [some tag-char 
| quoted-string] #">" termination]
in R3 the exception with the starting #]" may be a bug
BrianH
19-Feb-2012
[266]
Someone's complained about it, but I think it's sn intentional fix 
to this bug in R2:
>> [ < ]
== [<]
>> [<]
** Syntax Error: Invalid tag -- <
** Near: (line 1) [<]
Steeve
19-Feb-2012
[267x2]
It's more related with a wrong doing with the tag! decoding to me
but anyway
BrianH
19-Feb-2012
[269x2]
When people wanted to refer to the < word in R2, and they can't use 
the lit-word syntax for arrow words in R3 and pre-a97 R3, one way 
is to store that word in a block and use FIRST to get the value. 
However, in R2 that resulted in a value that LOAD choked on. The 
<] tradeoff was made really early on in the R3 project to solve that 
issue. The alternative would be to make MOLD mold [<] as [< ], or 
more specifically to make < mold as "< ", with an extra space every 
time.
in R3 and pre-a97 R3 -> in R2 and pre-a97 R3
Steeve
19-Feb-2012
[271]
I would add it's easy bypassed in R2 if one insert a blank after 
<
>> [<  ]
==[<]
BrianH
19-Feb-2012
[272]
The way MOLD is written, the values are molded by code that doesn't 
know it's in a block. You could have the ] handling code check against 
a charset of iffy characters and then optionally insert an extra 
space if found, but that doesn't deal with user-written code where 
[>] works and [<] doesn't. The usage of ] as the first character 
in a tag is so rare that it's not a bad tradeoff to make.
Steeve
19-Feb-2012
[273x3]
Well, I agree
Introducing email! datatype next.

form: '?[*-:-*'] 
':' may be in the first position only
'<' can't be in the first position
'%FF' escaping chars in hexa notation
Both R2, R3

escape-uri: [#"%" 2 hex-digit]
email-char: complement union charset {%@:} termination-char
email-syntax: [
	[#":" | not #"<" email-char | escape-uri]
	any [email-char | escape-uri]
	#"@"
	any [email-char | escape-uri]
	termination
]
Andreas
19-Feb-2012
[276x2]
Hmm, when : is in the first position, a : can occur anywhere afterwards 
as well.
For example, [:a:@:b:]
Steeve
19-Feb-2012
[278]
not anymore an email! but an url! then
Andreas
19-Feb-2012
[279]
Not in R3.
Steeve
19-Feb-2012
[280x5]
right
right
right
good catch, true in R2 also
Arg, It will be hard to keep the rule tight
BrianH
19-Feb-2012
[285]
I figure that we should look at the email formatting standard, then 
subtract support for any syntax that would conflict with something 
else in REBOL, especially if that doesn't commonly show up in actual 
email addresses. We've already made some tradeoffs in favor of email 
(i.e. no @ in issues or words), maybe we want to make more.
Andreas
19-Feb-2012
[286]
Where would we "want" to do that?
BrianH
19-Feb-2012
[287]
Doesn't work for R2 though - that syntax just needs to be documented, 
it can't be changed.
Andreas
19-Feb-2012
[288]
Or how would such a desire reflect?