Syntax refers to the set of rules that define how to write a correctly structured program in a language. It explicitly does not deal with the program's meaning or interpretation.
1
vote
1answer
50 views
About AST construction in LL1 non recursive parser
I have implemented a LL1 parser in a non recursive approach with a explicit stack.
The following algorithm is from the Dragon Book:
set zp to point to the first symbol of w;
set X to the top stack ...
1
vote
4answers
526 views
Why are scientific programming languages so weird? [closed]
It seems to me that programming languages meant for use in science and engineering are consistently weird compared to general-purpose languages. Some examples off the top of my head:
In Matlab, each ...
17
votes
9answers
2k views
What is the benefit of having the assignment operator return a value?
I'm developing a language which I intend to replace both Javascript and PHP. (I can't see any problem with this. It's not like either of these languages have a large install base.)
One of the things ...
2
votes
3answers
342 views
Syntactic Sugar for old languages
I first learned about the existence of syntactic sugar languages, like CoffeeScript and SASS while working in Rails. This got me thinking... why do we not have well-known (if any at all) syntactic ...
11
votes
7answers
472 views
What is idiomatic use of arbitrary blocks in C?
A block is a list of statements to be executed. Examples of where blocks come up in C are after a while statement and in if statements
while( boolean expression)
statement OR block
if (boolean ...
2
votes
6answers
807 views
Stacking keywords on top of each other - poor style?
I have always wondered about this, especially in C/Java style languages. For example, consider the first 3 lines of this C# code:
lock (serviceLock)
using (var client = new ServiceClient())
try
{
...
3
votes
2answers
168 views
Variable declaration versus assignment syntax
Working on a statically typed language with type inference and streamlined syntax, and need to make final decision about syntax for variable declaration versus assignment. Specifically I'm trying to ...
0
votes
2answers
107 views
Languages like Tcl that have configurable syntax? [duplicate]
I'm looking for a language that will let me do what I could do with Clipper years ago, and which I can do with Tcl, namely add functionality in a way other than just adding functions.
For example in ...
7
votes
3answers
211 views
Construct your solution logic in syntax or in a faster and more efficient mental model?
I am a newbie, studying programming and I came across this question today:
How can I make sure that I'm actually learning how to program rather than simply learning the details of a language?
A ...
7
votes
6answers
859 views
Optional semicolons
Most often, in a general-purpose imperative language - semicolons as statement-delimiters are either required, or completely disallowed (e.g. C and Python).
However, some languages, like JavaScript, ...
2
votes
3answers
231 views
What language has integrated “list insertion” as part of code *syntax*?
Many programming languages permit natural manipulation of strings, and some languages permit the manipulations of lists too.
More often then not (always?), these operations are done as procedure ...
1
vote
1answer
268 views
How to write a syntax checker [closed]
How is a syntax checker for a programming language written? I am guessing a grammar has to be written first. How to then proceed?
Motivation
I'm using a programming language (Apex for Salesforce) ...
1
vote
3answers
345 views
Any languages use the '=>' and '=<' operators? [closed]
I'm just curious if there are any programming languages that use the '=>' and '=<' operators for something.
I wonder why these are not commonly used when their variant '<=' and '>=' are so ...
4
votes
1answer
2k views
Why there is no markdown for underline? [closed]
I am wondering why there is no markdown syntax for underline? I know that basic html tags can be embedded to achieve this but I am trying to understand why underline got omitted when bold and italics ...
0
votes
1answer
149 views
Truth condition testing with BOOL
BOOL myBool;
myBool = YES;
...
if (myBool) {
doFoo();
}
I have read that because there are instances where the above does not actually call the doFoo() function, it is best to instead always test ...
3
votes
5answers
587 views
Does relying on intellisense and documentation a lot while coding makes you a bad programmer? [duplicate]
Is a programmer required to learn and memorize all syntax, or is it ok to keep handy some documentation?
Would it affect the way that managers look at coders?
What are the downside of depending on ...
7
votes
4answers
642 views
What makes Common Lisp “big”?
I've been learning both Common Lisp and Racket, and one thing that I consistently hear is that Racket is a much "smaller" language than Common Lisp. I was wondering what this really meant. As far as I ...
14
votes
1answer
526 views
Dollar Sign Blues: Javascript and PHP
I grew up programming C++ and Java where everything was safe and beautiful. Compilers made sure to keep me in check if I ever strayed. Of course, everyone did a little Perl in college, but I didn't ...
2
votes
1answer
138 views
How do I distinguish between things belonging to the standard library, specific gems, and those that are user-generated in Ruby?
I'm a beginning programmer, that for various reasons is using an existing Ruby codebase to learn to program. My goal is to be able to understand and eventually extend this codebase. However, I find it ...
0
votes
2answers
101 views
What Does “The Program Must Process Each Character Before Reading the Next One” Mean?
From the book Think Like a Programmer (emphasis mine)
The Luhn formula is a widely used system for validating identification numbers. Using the original number, double the value of every other ...
2
votes
2answers
304 views
foreach over multiple lists at once
Are there any languages that support foreach over multiple lists at once? Something like this:
foreach (string a in names, string b in places, string c in colors) {
// do stuff with a, b, c
...
2
votes
1answer
161 views
Objective C - nested messages … confusion about
Wonder if anyone could shed some light on this messaging construct:
The documentation says that messages appear btwn brackets [] and
that the msg target/object is on the left, whilst the msg itself ...
2
votes
2answers
116 views
Helper Methods Placement
Here's a question that's always bugged me. I'm going to use java as an example because I've almost never run into a problem in java where I didn't need to use helper methods in its class structure.
...
45
votes
7answers
3k views
Why are semicolons and commas interchanged in for loops?
In many languages (a wide list, from C to JavaScript):
commas , separate arguments (e.g. func(a, b, c)), while
semicolons ; separate sequential instructions (e.g. instruction1; instruction2; ...
35
votes
2answers
2k views
Why do bitwise operators have lower priority than comparisons?
Could someone explain the rationale, why in a bunch of most popular languages (see note below) comparison operators (==, !=, <, >, <=, >=) have higher priority than bitwise operators (&, |, ...
30
votes
11answers
2k views
What is the difference between “Syntax” and “Syntactic Sugar”
Background
The Wikipedia page on Syntactic Sugar states:
In computer science, syntactic sugar is syntax within a programming language that is designed to make things easier to read or to express. ...
3
votes
2answers
150 views
When to (enforce) linting in a software project
I'm heading a new team of developers working on a software project that makes use of continuous integration (circleci) w/ a pretty fleshed out suite of busterjs unit/integration/acceptance tests. Our ...
63
votes
3answers
20k views
Why do programming languages, especially C, use curly braces and not square ones?
The definition of "C-Style language" can practically be simplified down to "uses curly braces ({})." Why do we use that particular character (and why not something more reasonable, like [], which ...
2
votes
3answers
3k views
Checking “instanceof” rather than value using a switch statement
Is there some syntax (other than a series of if statements) that allows for the use of a switch statement in Java to check if an object is an instanceof a class? I.e., something like this:
switch ...
2
votes
1answer
207 views
Are there studies about foo/bar/baz and how they inhibit or facilitate comprehension?
Preface
foo,bar,baz are instantly recognizable signifiers of example or pseudo code. Their popularity seems to be a strong indication that the programming community accepts them as a good way to ...
17
votes
4answers
6k views
Why store a function inside a python dictionary?
I'm a python beginner, and I just learned a technique involving dictionaries and functions. The syntax is easy and it seems like a trivial thing, but my python senses are tingling. Something tells me ...
2
votes
1answer
235 views
How are “Json.org”-like specs graphs called and how can I generate them?
In http://www.json.org Douglas Crockford shows the specs of the JSON format in two interesting ways:
In the right side column he lists a text spec that looks like a YACC or LEX listing.
In the main ...
8
votes
3answers
772 views
Why can't we write nested shorthand functions in Clojure?
I tried to evaluate a Clojure expression with nested shorthand functions today, and it wouldn't let me.
The expression was:
(#(+ % (#(+ % (* % %)) %)) 5) ; sorry for the eye bleed
The output was:
...
2
votes
2answers
121 views
How to programmatically construct textual query
Here is a query language, more specifically, it's JQL, you can use it in Jira, to search for issues, it's something like SQL, but quite simpler.
My case is that, I need to construct such queries ...
3
votes
5answers
770 views
Why do node packages put a comma on a newline?
I'm learning node.js and am trying out Express. My first app had this code:
var express = require('express')
, routes = require('./routes')
, user = require('./routes/user')
, http = ...
1
vote
3answers
561 views
Syntax Memorization [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Programmers forgetting syntax
Do programmers need a good memory?
I'm a new web developer. I began learning HTML/CSS around June of this year. I picked them up ...
11
votes
8answers
1k views
Why isn't functional language syntax more close to human language?
I'm interested in functional programming and decided to get head to head with Haskell. My head hurts... but I'll eventually get it...
I have one curiosity though, why is the syntax so cryptic (in lack ...
1
vote
3answers
251 views
How can you learn names of methods or classes of a framework or an API?
I've been programming C++ for a year now. I've gone through the language features and I've written good programs with it, so I decided to move on to OpenGL. At first it seemed confusing. As I kept ...
8
votes
8answers
955 views
How important is it to learn makefiles? [closed]
I work in c++ mostly as a hobby (I'm still in school and therefor don't have a real job). The IDEs generate the makefile for me and so I'm wondering if it's worth learning how to make them myself. By ...
4
votes
3answers
683 views
Omit terminating semicolon in a tag - a good idea?
It's possible to omit the terminating semicolon in a tag.
Example:
<table>
<th><td>Name</td><td>Email</td>
<? foreach ($receivers as $receiver): ?>
...
13
votes
9answers
1k views
Teaching kids to program - how to teach syntax?
I've been spending this week teaching kids (11-18) to program. Teaching them the core concepts and the logic has been going fine, but I've noticed one snagging point for them all: syntax.
I feel like ...
3
votes
5answers
390 views
Confusion regarding def function within Python
I've been learning Python for about 2 months now (Started with Learn Python The Hard Way, now reading Dive Into Python), and within both books, I still seem to be confused over this one bit of code.
...
5
votes
2answers
207 views
Can the Clojure set and maps syntax be added to other Lisp dialects?
In addition to create list using parentheses, Clojure allows to create vectors using [ ], maps using { } and sets using #{ }.
Lisp is always said to be a very extensible language in which you can ...
3
votes
2answers
211 views
Are “backwards” terminators for if and case unique to shell scripting?
In bash at least, if and case blocks are closed like this:
if some-expr
then
echo "hello world"
fi
case $some-var in
[1-5])
do-a-thing
;;
*)
do-another-thing
esac
as opposed to the ...
2
votes
2answers
529 views
What are complete programming languages with a minimal syntax and how is that important? [closed]
With minimal syntax I mean a language that could be entirely described with the least words possible, but complete enough to make any kind of program.
5
votes
1answer
150 views
Pythonesque global variable assignment
I'm designing a language with Pythonesque syntax, including casual creation of variables by assignment. I'm wondering at the moment exactly how to deal with assignment to global variables (and ...
3
votes
3answers
223 views
Eliminating tab characters in a new language
I'm working on a new programming language, which determines structure with indentation instead of braces in the manner of Python and CoffeeScript. Obviously placing lines indented with spaces next to ...
0
votes
2answers
91 views
Reinforcing Syntax Elements
I am currently learning Javascript, and there is one element of the syntax that I can just not seem to nail down. That element is adding semicolons at the end of each line. I have learned Python and ...
3
votes
6answers
2k views
Is there a language that transcompiles to C with a better syntax? [closed]
CoffeeScript is a language with a very clean Ruby-like syntax that transcompiles to JavaScript. Does the same thing exists with C? Then writing more readable and as fast as original C programs would ...
4
votes
5answers
323 views
How to remember the details (Core APIs) of one computer language?
I found my self often paused to check a certain usage of one core API when writing either javascript or Ruby. I am wondering how the other guys doing? Is it necessary to remember every Core API ...
