Well, to many, things like { … } or begin … end, = or := are
are the least significant factors determining the look-and-feel
of a language.
#define do {
#define begin {
#define end }
in C, and I guess you will still not quite get the impression of
not being in C, when you actually start playing with the code.
Sab
“Bill Tj” billtj@glue.umd.edu wrote in message news:f121f7e.0210090416.67462987@posting.google.com…
···
Hi,
It seems so far that Ruby is usually attributed as taking the best
features of several other languages, but Pascal is not one of them.
To me, coming from the Basic->Fortran->C/C+±>Java->Tcl->Perl->Python
background, the first time I saw Ruby, I said, “it looks like Pascal”,
because of the “end” keywords, and “begin” and “do” (although they are
used differently in Ruby). Now, with the proposed “:=” block
operator, I think then Ruby really looks like Pascal.Probably some other languages have syntax similar to Pascal, but at
least to me Pascal is the “major” language that is closest to Ruby in
syntax resemblance. (“Major” because at least some time ago the first
language taught in CS is Pascal; remember how Borland’s Turbo Pascal
got its popularity?) So can anyone say about Pascal’s influence on
Ruby? Maybe yes, not at all, or a little bit?In addition, with “:=” as a new operator, is there any case where it
will be confused with “the symbol of ‘=’”? (Does it look like that in
Ruby, the punctuations begin to have too many different, unrelated
meanings, just as the “static” keyword in C++?)Regards,
Bill