[Cuis-dev] Double colon syntax

[Boris Shingarov]

I would use caution before I celebrate the double-colon.

(Like the semicolon), it is *adding* stuff instead of *removing*.  And 
it's not just adding anywhich stuff, it's adding *syntax*, which is 
supposed to fit on a postcard.  The sad reality is that our syntax is 
much more complex than many competitor languages', which manage to 
achieve in the library what we do with syntax.  (Do we still fit on a 
postcard with the double-colon)? I've been thinking about the reasons 
why we can't have #; and #:: as selectors (like, say, in Haskell $ does 
exactly what :: does in Cuis but $ is just another regular function) and 
there is a lot of work ahead of us to make things composable.

On 1/6/22 02:41, Gerald Klix via Cuis-dev wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I use it a lot. For me it is a "logical" or "expected"
> addition to Smalltalk's cascade syntax.
> Smalltalk feels less lispish with it.
> Additionally Haver is full of methods that use it:
>
> --- snip ---
> bear at speedy ~/h/Public-HaverOnCuis> pwd
> /home/bear/hgwork/Public-HaverOnCuis
> bear at speedy ~/h/Public-HaverOnCuis> find -iname '*.st'| wc -l
> 58
> bear at speedy ~/h/Public-HaverOnCuis> find -iname '*.st' | xargs grep -l 
> '::' | wc -l
> 51
> --- snip ---
>
> In fact 4 of the 26 CUIS-patches I submitted contain
> double-colon syntax, often in more than one place:
>
> --- snip ---
> bear at speedy ~/g/C/C/CoreUpdates> pwd
> /home/bear/gitwork/Cuis-Smalltalk/Cuis-Smalltalk-Dev/CoreUpdates
> bear at speedy ~/g/C/C/CoreUpdates> ls *Klix* | wc -l
> 26
> bear at speedy ~/g/C/C/CoreUpdates> ls *Klix* | xargs grep -l '::' | wc -l
> 4
> bear at speedy ~/g/C/C/CoreUpdates> ls *Klix* | xargs grep '::' | wc -l
> 9
> --- snip ---
>
> Alas, the pretty printer does not support it.
> Fixing this is a bit complicated, because AFIR
> the AST does not distinguish between these two
> syntagmas.
>
> OTH, if you want to make your double-colon-code portable
> just pretty print it.
>
>
> HTH and Best Regards,
>
> Gerald
>
>
>
> On 1/6/22 2:03 AM, Mariano Montone via Cuis-dev wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> I discovered double colon syntax today, when I came across Parser
>> class>>chainExamplesDoubleColon method.
>>
>> Looks like this:
>>
>> 3 + 4 :: negated  " => -7 "
>>
>> How many of you already knew about it?
>>
>> Is it something specific to Cuis? Is it available in other Smalltalks
>> too (perhaps in some other form)?
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Mariano
>>