On Sun, Dec 05, 2004 at 10:02:16AM -0600, Rod Adams wrote: > Although I by no means dispute that longest token rule is a long term > standard in language design, I will claim that many programmers, > including myself before this, are unaware of it.
Programmers tend to follow the rule even when they are not consciously aware of it. They usually become consciously aware of it the first time they try using a compiler generator to create a lexer, and discover that they need to define the longer tokens before the shorter ones in the configuration file. > So I will now change my concerns to: > "The longest-token rule needs to be mentioned in S03, and explained in a > future perlop.pod." For sure, stating it clearly and unambiguously will probably help those new to programming, and maybe help those who want to extend perl 6 by defining new grammer rules. -- Jon Shapcott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> "This is the Space Age, and we are Here To Go" - William S. Burroughs
