Re: New long comments in 5.1

[Philippe Lhoste <PhiLho@...>]

Virgil Smith wrote:
> > OK, I have another proposal:
>
> ...
>
> > I propose the ultimate flexibility: user defined syntax.
>
>
> IMHO this is an excellent suggestion (though I personally think it should be
> an add-on with a chunk-reader interface rather than part of the core).
>
> The great advantage here is that Lua is typically used "embedded" in an
> application, and lot's of Lua integrators are faced with transitioning users
> from another (often "home-grown") scripting language.  So being able to
> "fudge" the syntax a bit is very useful.

Well, I thought of it this evening, it could be fun...

Actually, you can use the same VM, the same bytecode, you just have to 
change the lexer... Of course, that's no longer Lua, but you still get 
its flexibility, small size, power, etc.

What about:

defFunc Split(toSplit, separator)
	local splitted <- <<>>
	local i <- 0
	'' Regular expression:
	'' 0 or more characters differents from separator, followed by 0 or 1 
separator
	local re <- ~([^~ @ separator @ ~]*)~ @ separator @ ~?~
	'' Add a separator to the end, to take in account empty field (if any) 
at the end of the line
	for part <<| string.gfind(toSplit @ separator, re)
	{
		i <- i + 1
		splitted<i> <- part
	}
	splitted[i] <- nil
	return splitted
endFunc

in place of:

function Split(toSplit, separator)
	local splitted = {}
	local i = 0
	-- Regular expression:
	-- 0 or more characters differents from separator, followed by 0 or 1 
separator
	local re = "([^" .. separator .. "]*)" .. separator .. "?"
	-- Add a separator to the end, to take in account empty field (if any) 
at the end of the line
	for part in string.gfind(toSplit .. separator, re) do
		i = i + 1
		splitted[i] = part
	end
	splitted[i] = nil
	return splitted
end

Definitively gives a "novel" look, even more if you rename library 
functions... The grammar must be careful thought, to avoid ambiguities...

--
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Philippe Lhoste (Paris -- France)
Professional programmer and amateur artist
http://Phi.Lho.free.fr
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