Re: Ideas about colon operator syntax (and a patch in the work)

[Thomas Jericke <tjericke@...>]

On 04/29/2014 03:30 PM, Dirk Laurie wrote:
> 2014-04-29 14:49 GMT+02:00 Thomas Jericke <tjericke@indel.ch>:
>
> > require "string"
> > local text = "I can shout!"
> > print(text:upper) --> I CAN SHOUT!
> Another plausible semantics for the same notation would be
> specialization of the first argument (forgot the correct technical
> term) so that `f = text:upper` means the same as
>
> f = function(...) return text:upper(...) end
I don't really like the idea of function declarations that don't involve 
the 'function' keyword.
But maybe I am just conservative here. I just think that having an 
explicit 'function' keyword
is actually an advantage of Lua over 'C' like programming languages.
> Now would I be willing to sacrifice the syntax space for that
> eventuality in favour of typing two characters fewer in the case
> of a member function called with no arguments? That is the
> question.
I am never in favour of changing things to type less (see my remark 
about the function keyword ^^ ),
actually I think the syntax just becomes prettier without too many 
brackets.
I also prefer 2*a + 3*b over (2*a) + (3*b), but I have to admit, it's 
just personal taste.
--
Thomas