Subject: variables: redefining syntax or semantics?

From: Kjetil Torgrim Homme <[email-masked]>
Date: 14 Apr 2003 05:52:48 +0200

draft -00 changes the semantics of strings.  this has the advantage
that the original Sieve syntax is left unchanged.

in <[email-masked]> I outlined syntax changes to
accomplish the same.

it seems to me that it is acceptable to change syntax if the new
syntax is more restrictive than the original, that is, the set of
valid scripts in the new syntax is a subset of the valid scripts in
the old syntax.  this is true for the suggested syntax.  (I withdraw
single quoted strings.)

even so, the syntax does change, and thus the parser must change its
behaviour depending on the extensions which are pulled in.  expressing
variable references as syntax may seem esthetically pleasing, but the
implementation might not be.

(I haven't read through the complete list archive yet.)
-- 
Kjetil T.