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Hmm, it looks like a lot of work has been put into simplifying object notation down to it's bare minimum, but the trailing whitespace and array representation b

by jscheel 14y ago

Hmm, it looks like a lot of work has been put into simplifying object notation down to it's bare minimum, but the trailing whitespace and array representation both concern me. Significant trailing whitespace, as @cynwoody said, is a really bad approach to the multiline solution. Also, having to number arrays means ordering is a nightmare. Overall, it's a cool approach that needs some work, and could probably benefit from looking at YAML, instead of HAML, for inspiration.

breck 14y ago
Very good observations. Thanks for taking a careful look. We've run into both points in practice over the past year. See my comments to @cynwoody regarding the whitespace. For an array, while Note doesn't support an array type, you can extend Note with a higher level language that does. For example, I could create a higher level language on top of Note that supports types: favorite_colors ['blue', 'green', 'red'] Your language could interpret the value of favorite_colors as an array, and so you could access favorite_colors[0], favorite_colors.length, and so forth.
- jscheel 14y ago
  No problem. I think the suggestion below, about using empty lines, might be a good approach to pursue. One additional thing to consider about the trailing-whitespace, a lot of (sometimes anal) developers have set up hooks to automatically strip whitespace at the end of a file every time they hit save. To clarify the array, in your suggestion, the favorite_colors would come out as a string, that I would then eval or parse, correct?
  - breck 14y ago
    > One additional thing to consider about the trailing-whitespace, a lot of (sometimes anal) developers have set up hooks to automatically strip whitespace at the end of a file every time they hit save. Strip whitespace at the end of all lines, or at the end of a file? Wouldn't be a problem at the end of files, but at the end of lines might be an issue. > To clarify the array, in your suggestion, the favorite_colors would come out as a string, that I would then eval or parse, correct? Correct. A leaf/value can use any encoding. So you could have something like this: function Person (note) { this.patch(note) if (this.favorite_colors) this.favorite_colors = JSON.parse(this.favorite_colors) } Person.prototype = new Note() var joe = new Person('favorite_colors ["blue", "red", "green"]') console.log(joe.favorite_colors[0]) // prints "blue" console.log(joe.favorite_colors[2]) // prints "green"

by jscheel 14y ago

breck 14y ago

Very good observations. Thanks for taking a careful look. We've run into both points in practice over the past year. See my comments to @cynwoody regarding the whitespace. For an array, while Note doesn't support an array type, you can extend Note with a higher level language that does. For example, I could create a higher level language on top of Note that supports types: favorite_colors ['blue', 'green', 'red'] Your language could interpret the value of favorite_colors as an array, and so you could access favorite_colors[0], favorite_colors.length, and so forth.

jscheel 14y ago
No problem. I think the suggestion below, about using empty lines, might be a good approach to pursue. One additional thing to consider about the trailing-whitespace, a lot of (sometimes anal) developers have set up hooks to automatically strip whitespace at the end of a file every time they hit save. To clarify the array, in your suggestion, the favorite_colors would come out as a string, that I would then eval or parse, correct?
- breck 14y ago
  > One additional thing to consider about the trailing-whitespace, a lot of (sometimes anal) developers have set up hooks to automatically strip whitespace at the end of a file every time they hit save. Strip whitespace at the end of all lines, or at the end of a file? Wouldn't be a problem at the end of files, but at the end of lines might be an issue. > To clarify the array, in your suggestion, the favorite_colors would come out as a string, that I would then eval or parse, correct? Correct. A leaf/value can use any encoding. So you could have something like this: function Person (note) { this.patch(note) if (this.favorite_colors) this.favorite_colors = JSON.parse(this.favorite_colors) } Person.prototype = new Note() var joe = new Person('favorite_colors ["blue", "red", "green"]') console.log(joe.favorite_colors[0]) // prints "blue" console.log(joe.favorite_colors[2]) // prints "green"