Translation Mode Declaratio <9110010442.AA25294ainternal.apple.com>

[queueing-rmail]

I don't normally contribute to this list, but I saw a couple of things
in the last posting (by Jim Thomas) that looks rather contorted, so I
just wanted to suggest some alternatives.

First I should say that I think that Richard Stallman's point about
#pragmas was a good one.  (And it appears that Jim Thomas took it to heart.)

Now, about these other things...

  
  o	What would be the order of application with the cast syntax?
	For example, in
  
  	... (switch off)(switch on)(expr) ...
  
  is expr translated with switch on or off?

Obviously, you could define either order, but the idea of reusing the cast
syntax seem to me to be a bad idea.  I believe in the simple philosophy
that things that *are* dramatically different should look dramatically
different.  That helps for readability and comprehension.  As an alternative,
how about:

		switch on { expr }

You would still have the problem of how to define the effects of:

		switch on { switch off { expr } }

but it would seem quite natural to say that the innermost setting takes
precedence.


Now... about all those one and zeros... why use them?  I mean why use:
  
  	honor_exceptions [0 | 1];	/* default 0 */

when you could just use either of:

	honor_exceptions;
	ignore_exceptions;

The use of ones and zeros seems rather stilted and inelegant.  I know
that the machines all prefer ones and zeros, but I prefer English.  That
is *my* "default mode". :-)

// Ron ("Loose Cannon") Guilmette
// Internet: rfgancd.com      uucp: ...uunet!lupine!segfault!rfg
// New motto:  If at first your don't succeed, forget it.