Torsten Anders wrote:
On 09.08.2006, at 12:12, Boriss Mejias wrote:
I can hardly understand, why it is so. I find Oz an interesting
language (although I don't like its syntax - but that's a matter of
my personal taste).
Several colleagues who have used Oz have struggled with the syntax.
They are so used to the C/C++/Java syntax that they can hardly learn
something new.
here I disagree. I know several people coming from languages like
Lisp/Scheme/SmallTalk/Pico/Obliq, which have syntax very different to
C/C++/Java, and they also dislike Mozart's syntax. Unfortunately,
there is a common agreement for that, and being good looking it's
important for "popularity". It is not everything, but it is important.
Just for curiosity: what are those complains exactly (from either camp)?
I can't remember exactly all the complains, because in the end it is
just a matter of taste. But anyway, I've heard complains with the
keywords proc and fun. If you say it is to save typing, they don't
understand why we have andthen and orelse. Also the use of {} for
applying for procedures. Variables need to start always with a capital
letter. [] is not an empty list. The election of variable names in the
examples such as H T L T BT instead of Head, Tail, List, Tree,
BinaryTree, etc...
I know everything is for a reason, but saying the syntax is ugly or not
has nothing to do with being practical, so, we are not going to convince
people to like the syntax of Oz.
Personally, I also dislike the fact that [] is not an empty list, and I
would chosen
case of ... of ... of ... end
instead of
case of ... [] ... [] ... end
but still, minor details...
cheers
Boriss
Perhaps the strongest argument of all these people is that Oz' syntax is
so different from what they are used. Nevertheless, this different
syntax may help to realise that actually the semantics is very different..
Just my 2 cent.
Best,
Torsten
--
Torsten Anders
Sonic Arts Research Centre • Queen's University Belfast
Frankstr. 49 • D-50996 Köln
Tel: +49-221-3980750
http://www.torsten-anders.de
http://strasheela.sourceforge.net
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