python, perl, lisp, tcl / got a decision to make, can you give me a view point please ? and a joke for python users :)

[Marcin 'Qrczak' Kowalczyk]

Ok, it seems that you can't stand Perl's success and everybody here
must from time to time say that Perl is evil :-)

So to make you laugh, here is my favorite Perl silliness
(perl-5.6.0/toke.c). Enjoy the algorithm of disambiguation of the
last case!

/* S_intuit_more
 * Returns TRUE if there's more to the expression (e.g., a subscript),
 * FALSE otherwise.
 *
 * It deals with "$foo[3]" and /$foo[3]/ and /$foo[0123456789$]+/
 *
 * ->[ and ->{ return TRUE
 * { and [ outside a pattern are always subscripts, so return TRUE
 * if we're outside a pattern and it's not { or [, then return FALSE
 * if we're in a pattern and the first char is a {
 *   {4,5} (any digits around the comma) returns FALSE
 * if we're in a pattern and the first char is a [
 *   [] returns FALSE
 *   [SOMETHING] has a funky algorithm to decide whether it's a
 *      character class or not.  It has to deal with things like
 *      /$foo[-3]/ and /$foo[$bar]/ as well as /$foo[$\d]+/
 * anything else returns TRUE
 */

/* This is the one truly awful dwimmer necessary to conflate C and sed. */

STATIC int
S_intuit_more(pTHX_ register char *s)
{
    if (PL_lex_brackets)
	return TRUE;
    if (*s == '-' && s[1] == '>' && (s[2] == '[' || s[2] == '{'))
	return TRUE;
    if (*s != '{' && *s != '[')
	return FALSE;
    if (!PL_lex_inpat)
	return TRUE;

    /* In a pattern, so maybe we have {n,m}. */
    if (*s == '{') {
	s++;
	if (!isDIGIT(*s))
	    return TRUE;
	while (isDIGIT(*s))
	    s++;
	if (*s == ',')
	    s++;
	while (isDIGIT(*s))
	    s++;
	if (*s == '}')
	    return FALSE;
	return TRUE;
	
    }

    /* On the other hand, maybe we have a character class */

    s++;
    if (*s == ']' || *s == '^')
	return FALSE;
    else {
        /* this is terrifying, and it works */
	int weight = 2;		/* let's weigh the evidence */
	char seen[256];
	unsigned char un_char = 255, last_un_char;
	char *send = strchr(s,']');
	char tmpbuf[sizeof PL_tokenbuf * 4];

	if (!send)		/* has to be an expression */
	    return TRUE;

	Zero(seen,256,char);
	if (*s == '$')
	    weight -= 3;
	else if (isDIGIT(*s)) {
	    if (s[1] != ']') {
		if (isDIGIT(s[1]) && s[2] == ']')
		    weight -= 10;
	    }
	    else
		weight -= 100;
	}
	for (; s < send; s++) {
	    last_un_char = un_char;
	    un_char = (unsigned char)*s;
	    switch (*s) {
	    case '@':
	    case '&':
	    case '$':
		weight -= seen[un_char] * 10;
		if (isALNUM_lazy_if(s+1,UTF)) {
		    scan_ident(s, send, tmpbuf, sizeof tmpbuf, FALSE);
		    if ((int)strlen(tmpbuf) > 1 && gv_fetchpv(tmpbuf,FALSE, SVt_PV))
			weight -= 100;
		    else
			weight -= 10;
		}
		else if (*s == '$' && s[1] &&
		  strchr("[#!%*<>()-=",s[1])) {
		    if (/*{*/ strchr("])} =",s[2]))
			weight -= 10;
		    else
			weight -= 1;
		}
		break;
	    case '\\':
		un_char = 254;
		if (s[1]) {
		    if (strchr("wds]",s[1]))
			weight += 100;
		    else if (seen['\''] || seen['"'])
			weight += 1;
		    else if (strchr("rnftbxcav",s[1]))
			weight += 40;
		    else if (isDIGIT(s[1])) {
			weight += 40;
			while (s[1] && isDIGIT(s[1]))
			    s++;
		    }
		}
		else
		    weight += 100;
		break;
	    case '-':
		if (s[1] == '\\')
		    weight += 50;
		if (strchr("aA01! ",last_un_char))
		    weight += 30;
		if (strchr("zZ79~",s[1]))
		    weight += 30;
		if (last_un_char == 255 && (isDIGIT(s[1]) || s[1] == '$'))
		    weight -= 5;	/* cope with negative subscript */
		break;
	    default:
		if (!isALNUM(last_un_char) && !strchr("$@&",last_un_char) &&
			isALPHA(*s) && s[1] && isALPHA(s[1])) {
		    char *d = tmpbuf;
		    while (isALPHA(*s))
			*d++ = *s++;
		    *d = '\0';
		    if (keyword(tmpbuf, d - tmpbuf))
			weight -= 150;
		}
		if (un_char == last_un_char + 1)
		    weight += 5;
		weight -= seen[un_char];
		break;
	    }
	    seen[un_char]++;
	}
	if (weight >= 0)	/* probably a character class */
	    return FALSE;
    }

    return TRUE;
}

-- 
 __("<  Marcin Kowalczyk * qrczak at knm.org.pl http://qrczak.ids.net.pl/
 \__/
  ^^                      SYGNATURA ZASTĘPCZA
QRCZAK