Re: [ANN] Lua 5.2.0 (beta-rc1) now available

[Miles Bader <miles@...>]

Jerome Vuarand <jerome.vuarand@gmail.com> writes:
>> AFAICS, a keyword would be worse:  besides the obvious problem of
>> messing up some peoples' programs, it would make labels significantly
>> less visible (no, highlighting by editors isn't sufficient), and we
>> _want_ labels to be highly visible.
>
> That "we" is not everybody. I for one don't want labels to be more
> visibel than other statements. The simple fact that they are usually
> indented differently makes them stand out, and an all lowercase short
> keyword is much more comfortable to read to some of us than an @.

[_will_ it usually be indented differently?  the examples people have
given so far show "label foo" being used exactly like a normal Lua
statement, with the result labels pretty much disappear in to the code...]

The alternative to "label" is not necessarily "@"; the devs have already
shown themselves open to alternate suggestions.

Maybe something like ::label:: or :label: might be good -- very visible,
but still less "heavy feeling" than "@".

>> Even though Lua uses keywords in many places, it's certainly not
>> necessary that it use keywords for _everything_.
>
> It's not necessary, but IMHO consistency makes the language elegant.

Syntax "consistency" is often good -- but it is not the only factor to
consider.

-Miles

-- 
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