Re: Another example for syntactically lightweight closures

[Asko Kauppi <askok@...>]

What would you think of a notation like this?

{
	yyy=	do =something end
	xxx= 	do(a,b) =a+b end
	zzz= 	do(a,b,c) if a then =b else =c end end
}

Will make it a luaSub mod for trial, but thought of asking opinions  
first.

do ... end	->  	function() ... end
do(...) ... end	->	function(...) ... end

= exp		->	return exp		(within the enclosed block)

Especially the '=' trick is handy, since it makes simple closures  
readable and does not (is this true?) overlap with existing valid Lua  
syntax.

-asko


David Manura kirjoitti 7.2.2008 kello 4:30:

> Miles Bader writes:
> > Bret Victor writes:
> > > I thing I like about Lua syntax is that punctuation is kept minimal,
> > > and words are used (in, do, end) when that's how you would read the
> > > code out loud.
> >
> > I agree, in general -- I don't dislike punctuation heavy languages  
> > like
> > C, but Lua has a consistent and attractive style of its own.   
> > [Still, in
> > the middle of an expression, I think a punctuation-oriented lambda
> > syntax isn't out of place, even in Lua.]
>
> In Lua, we do write "{1,2}" rather than "table 1, 2 end".  Given  
> that functions
> are fundamental data type, like tables, there is consistency in using
> punctuation to denote functions, particularly when used as lambda  
> expressions.
>
> Approaches for syntactically lightweight closures are also  
> discussed in [1].
>
> [1] http://lua-users.org/wiki/ShortAnonymousFunctions