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I don't necessarily agree with #2. Yeah, SML has formalized syntax, but it's also a frozen language. It simply isn't practical to have completely formalized s
by j_baker 16y ago
I don't necessarily agree with #2. Yeah, SML has formalized syntax, but it's also a frozen language. It simply isn't practical to have completely formalized semantics for a language like Python or Ruby that are still actively being changed. Nor is it necessarily always possible to eliminate all implementation-specific quirks.
In short, it's a good thing to have a language have few quirks, but there is such thing as overspecifying.
- silentbicycle 16y agoThese things don't need to be taken to their logical extremes, though - handling most of the semantic edge cases is still an improvement, even if it isn't exhaustive. Emphasizing well-defined semantics could also be a push to keeping the language small and clean.