Re: Ada and Java/C++

[Brian Drummond <brian@shapes.demon.co.uk>]

On Tue, 28 Aug 2012 13:09:24 -0400, Dennis Lee Bieber wrote:

> On Tue, 28 Aug 2012 10:50:40 +0000 (UTC), Brian Drummond
> <brian@shapes.demon.co.uk> declaimed the following in comp.lang.ada:
> 
>> Changing begin and end to { and } does not change the syntax a jot*,
>> but
> 
> 	But you would also be changing
> 
> begin			{
> then			{
> loop			{

(etc) ... you certainly would, as I conceded originally "it would take a 
lot of work" if the result was not to mess up badly - including error 
reporting, as you say.

> 	It would make a mess of compiler error reporting when the compiler
> can not identify if a missing "end" is an "end if", "end case", "end
> loop", "end whatever".

However the error report would originate in the compiler - not the 
preprocessor - and therefore it would be on the generated Ada (with a 
post-processor nod to the original code). It would say 
"missing } : end if" or such, and the coder would be responsible for 
counting his }}}}s. 

I think that would be of benefit, by pointing out how much easier it 
would be to write Ada directly!

- Brian