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> Eventually, the grammar itself will be modifiable at runtime Wouldn't that make programs hard to understand since you can't learn the syntax for once and all
by galaxyLogic 7y ago
> Eventually, the grammar itself will be modifiable at runtime
Wouldn't that make programs hard to understand since you can't learn the syntax for once and all. It's like having a book with different pages written in 3 different languages, to understand it you need to understand all those languages.
- Zaak 7y agoAs a counterexample, imagine reading a book on mathematics that did not use any special notation, instead relying on natural-language descriptions of formulas and algorithms. Or imagine reading a book on molecular biology that didn't use any technical vocabulary or diagrams, instead relying on colloquial language and descriptions. There is a place for specialized notation and vocabulary. Exactly where that line should be drawn in programming has been an ongoing conversation since 1953 when John Backus proposed the concepts that would lead to the development of Fortran.
- mafm 7y agoLisp let's you modify its syntax. You're making the standard argument about why that might be a bad idea. At least for Lisp, historically it worked pretty well. As new ideas came along, a lot of the good ones got incorporated in Lisp as syntax extensions. Overloading in C++ is kind of similar. Im not sure that worked out so well in practice.