Re: A Sugar Free Diet?

[steve donovan <steve.j.donovan@...>]

On Sun, May 4, 2014 at 3:42 PM, Michael Richter <ttmrichter@gmail.com> wrote:
> Syntax sugar is nice.  It makes syntax taste good.  Too much of it, however,
> is "empty calories" which should be avoided in large quantities.

The issue comes from a noun escaping from a technical phrase.
"syntactical sugar" is conventional and doesn't carry too many
connotations, certainly not as Roberto uses it, but sugar ... we have
_all_ been told about sugar! [1]

The phrase Andrew used "short cut" (or maybe "short hand") is more
neutral.  The convenient form of function "declaration" is a good
example - although it's useful pedagogically to use full form to
emphasize that it is the assignment of a function value to a variable.

"sugar" also implies a kind of frosting on the cake, a few cherries
that cause no harm (you can always refuse to eat the cherries) but
really it does involve more syntax, and has to be well-chosen not to
confuse people or machines.

[1] that Lisp guy who said "syntactical sugar causes cancer of the semi-colon" ?