[m-dev.] Infix syntax proposal

[Fergus Henderson]

On 14-Aug-2002, Michael Day <mikeday at yeslogic.com> wrote:
> 
> > I propose the following amendment to the infix syntax -- add a declaration 
> > to the language of the form:
> > 
> > :- infix foo, bar, baz.
> 
> While people may discuss the proposed syntax addition, this part seems
> more important:
> 
> > I propose that this infix transformer, if accepted, become part of the 
> > (m)make process, so that the first source transformation resolves infix 
> > calls and is transparent to users of mmake/mmc.
> 
> Such a process should be extensible to invoke moose on parser modules and
> any other macro expansion style transformers, as per the discussion on
> this list some several months ago.
> 
> This would scratch an itch that many developers are obviously feeling, and
> make the syntax trivially amenable to alteration and extension without
> hacking the compiler, which would be a Good Thing.

Well, with Mmake it's already very easy to add arbitrary preprocessors.
All that is required is a couple of lines in your Mmakefile per preprocessor.
See samples/expand_term.m for details.

-- 
Fergus Henderson <fjh at cs.mu.oz.au>  |  "I have always known that the pursuit
The University of Melbourne         |  of excellence is a lethal habit"
WWW: <http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~fjh>  |     -- the last words of T. S. Garp.
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