Why does formater remove the last period?

It's a configurable setting,

-Boris

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of askoh
Sent: Monday, December 17, 2012 8:45 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [vwnc] Why does formater remove the last period?

It seems to be as old as Smalltalk. What is the rational for removing the last period in a method?

Thanks,

Aik-Siong Koh

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I still like the period at the end of the method to not have to add one when modifying code by adding more lines, much of it being available has to do with personal preferences.

As mentioned in previous responses, the period is a statement separator not a terminator.  In fact, the original Smalltalk-80 considered a period at the end of a method to be a compile error.  This restriction was eventually lifted but it lasted for a long time in early versions of Smalltalk.

The other separator in Smalltalk is ; for cascades.  Would you consider this to be proper syntax?

    ^(Array new: 1)
          at: 1 put: #hello;
          yourself;

(note the ending semicolon)

David Buck


Reinier van Oosten wrote:

I agree with Georg on this matter. At the conception of Algol60 we worked with80 column punch cards. The boundary of a statement was the end of a card. The semicolon as a boundary was revolutionary at that time.

The link between Algol60 and Smalltalk is actually a very short one. In the early 60-ties Christen Nygard needed for simulation interruptible procedures that could be assigned to variables. He used Algol60 as his vehicle. He defined a single extra concept completely in line with the procedure concept of Algol60. He gave it the name "Class". This language was called Simula67. Of course, the semicolon as statement delimiter in stead of statement closure, was maintained. 

Simula on its turn was one of the most inspiring languages for Alan Kay in his Dynabook project. In this project he developed a new language: Smalltalk (first version: Smalltalk72). 

How far ahead Alan Kay was, is the time it actually costed to implement the real dynabook: another 40 years. Yhe name of the first realization: iPad.

Reinier van Oosten

On 18 Dec 2012, at 8:18 AM, Georg Heeg wrote:

This behavior is actually pretty old. It dates back at least to Algol 60

where the semicolon stands between statements but is not allowed before the

END symbol. PL/I did not have this behavior, though, but many Algol

successors have it like Pascal, Modula and C.

Georg

Georg Heeg eK, Dortmund und Köthen, HR Dortmund A 12812

Wallstraße 22, 06366 Köthen

Tel. +49-3496-214328, Fax +49-3496-214712

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Von: [hidden email] [[hidden email]] Im Auftrag

von askoh

Gesendet: Dienstag, 18. Dezember 2012 03:06

An: [hidden email]

Betreff: Re: [vwnc] Why does formater remove the last period?

I am interested in the history behind it. Which language natural or computer

has this kind of behavior? Who invented it? Why? Does anybody find it

useful?

Thanks,

Aik-Siong Koh

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