Nicholas Clark writes:
> Would it be sane to get the parser to return suitable information on the
> source to let a syntax analyser (such as a highlighting editor) know that
> character positions 5123 to 5146 are a qq() string (So it can change the
> font or the colour or whatever)
I think the problems with this that were raised in the past are:
* parsing partial source
* does this mean that the parser has to reparse the whole sourcefile
every time you type a character?
I think the better solution is to make Perl just a little more regular
(as suggested in RFCs about making m in matches mandatory) so that it
becomes easier to parse. Of course with
$a = \"foo";
your text editor needs to learn a little more about Perl :-) Or you
could write your own little language, so that you would write:
$a = reference_to("foo");
Or, better yet, simply write in unambiguous XML:
<operator name="=">
<operand position=0>
<variable type="scalar">a</variable>
</operand>
<operand position=1>
<operator name="reference_to">
<operand position=0>
<constant type="string">foo</constant>
</operand>
</operator>
</operand>
</operator>
:-)
Nat
