OpenEuphoria

Re: Bug in get() and value(): embedded comments

• Posted by CChris <christian.cuvier at agricu??ure.gouv.fr> Jul 25, 2007
• 610 views

Jason Gade wrote:
> 
> What do comments have to do with value() or Euphoria objects?

Comments may appear in string representations of Euphoria objects - more
precisely, of sequences.

> What do valid
> Euphoria statements have to do with converting between strings and objects?
> 

Euphoria statements are conveyed by strings, some of which represent Euphoria
objects. When a statement is valid, all the substrings it uses are valid too as
object representations - otherwise compile would fail.

> I'm confused at the need for this.
> 

This is needed for two types of reasons:

1/ It is valid to use comments inside Euphori object representations, yet
value() and get() can't read them properly. This is the very definition of a bug.

2/ Don't you think the following is the simplest .ini file format?
"{
-- first parameter, bla bla
127,
-- second parameter, for other purposes
\"myfile.txt\",
-- and on and on
}"

Making this the contents of a config file allows anyone to edit/customise it
without the need of a specific interface. Reading the config file would be done
by get(), followed by a few assignments from the sequence read to variables
intended to receive the persistent values. Writing is hardly more complex using a
sprint() and a list of the comment tags.

CChris
> --
> "Any programming problem can be solved by adding a level of indirection."
> --anonymous
> "Any performance problem can be solved by removing a level of indirection."
> --M. Haertel
> "Premature optimization is the root of all evil in programming."
> --C.A.R. Hoare
> j.