OpenEuphoria

Re: Initializing variables on declarations

• Posted by Juergen Luethje <j.lue at gmx.de> Apr 04, 2007
• 567 views

Robert Craig wrote:

> Michael J. Sabal wrote:
> > Okay, I'm about to do it again.  I was looking at the Euphoria source and 
> > the list of open feature requests, and I think this change can be done with
> > minimal code.
> > 
> > Current syntax:
> > [global] integer x  x = 5
> > 
> > Desired syntax:
> > [global] integer x = 5
> > 
> > As I see it, the initializing assignment can remain optional.  The procedure
> > 
> > parser() in parser.e would need an additional temp variable to hold the 
> > variable name.  After global_symbol is called, check if the next token is 
> > EQUALS.  If not, put it back.  If so, call assignment.  This would need to
> > be
> > added to both the TYPE and GLOBAL TYPE sections.
> > 
> > AFAICT, this wouldn't break anything.  Can anyone see a reason for not doing
> > this?
> 
> Here's what I said about this (and some other stuff) back in 2002:
> 
>   <a
>   href="http://www.listfilter.com/cgi-bin/esearch.exu?fromMonth=2&fromYear=7&toMonth=2&toYear=7&postedBy=rds&keywords=declaration+initialize">http://www.listfilter.com/cgi-bin/esearch.exu?fromMonth=2&fromYear=7&toMonth=2&toYear=7&postedBy=rds&keywords=declaration+initialize</a>

I agree with every word in the posting at this link.
Intermixing declaration of variables with assignments can reduce
readability, and therefore shouldn't be allowed.

> If a clear majority wants this, and someone is prepared to do it,
> I would go along with it (though I still don't think it's
> a particularly good idea.) However if you do it for global 
> (and local to a file) declarations, why not privates (inside a routine) 
> as well?

Regards,
   Juergen