On Saturday 25 October 2003 17:49, Paul Moore wrote: ...
However, one significant issue with your notation scope(outer).x = 23 is that, although scope(outer) *looks like* a function call, it isn't - precisely because scope is a keyword.
I think that, if you're using a keyword, you need something syntactically distinct. Now maybe you can make something like
Existing operator keywords, such as, e.g., 'not', get away without it. One can use parentheses, write not(x), or not (preferable style); and what's the problem if "not(x)" CAN indeed look like a function call while in fact it's not? I really makes no deep difference here that 'not' is a keyword and not a built-in function (it does matter when it's used with other syntax, of course, such as "x is not y" or "x not in y" or "not x" and so on -- but then, where 'scope' to be introduced, it, too, like other operator keywords, might admit of slightly different syntax uses). Similarly, that 'scope' is a keyword known to the compiler is not deeply important to the user coding scope(f) -- it might as well be a built-in, from the user's viewpoint. It's important to the compiler, it becomes important if the user erroneously tries to rebind "scope = 23", but those cases don't give problems. Alex