[REBOL] Parsing comment
From: jason:cunliffe:verizon at: 23-Sep-2002 0:03
Today I read a comment about REBOL which I don't understand. I am NOT seeking to
start a language flamewar. Just curious and hoping someone here can explain more
about parsers. I barely know how to use REBOL's parse, but I like what I know
about it, and it has a strong reputation in these waters.
> On Rebol (which to my ears rhymes more with Cobol than with rebel :-),
> I've not looked much at it personally, but I trust a close colleague
> who has, and who finds it hard to use because the parser cannot know
> the end of a function's parameter list -- that's only known at run
> time, once the function is called. Sounds like dead on arrival to me,
> as far as language design goes. So if we want to learn from Rebol, we
> must try to learn from other ideas in it, not from the core language
> design.
The context behind this is I have been engaged in a some intense debate on the
Python-oriented Edu-Sig list. I love Python, but tried point out the obstacles I
think it presents to very novice programmers.
I mentioned REBOL, giving a contrasting example of how direct and friendly
REBOL's help command is. Mainly because it includes a search function. Simple
idea, but incedibly friendly effective result. My scenarios was of novice python
student trying to determine the current working directory. "Where am I?"
>> ? d
>> ? dir
>> ? what-dir
Python by contrast is great for hackers, and should be great for students. It
has all kinds of super-duper tools a for browsing docstrings, and object
introspection, but it can be initially overwhelming or useless, until you know
exactly what to type, you can find yourself a few screenfulls later before your
get the golden answers. In Python to answer the question "where am I?" you have
import a module, then invoke one of its methods. Very Easy when you know how,
but obscure as hell when you don't:
>>> import os
>>> os.getcwd()
'C:\\Python22'
Thanks
./Jason
