';' in declaration lists

The semicolon is currently used to separate declarations, i.e. the
grammar rule reads

declaration_list:	declaration [ ';' declaration ]*

However, in many programming and skript languages the semicolon is
used as a terminator, i. e. the corresponding grammar rule would be

declaration_list:	declaration ';' [ declaration ';' ]*

I think that the current grammar may cause irritations to the user,
which may be used to using ';' as a terminator. To him

P { font-size : 10pt }

looks illegal (or sloppy), but is legal, while

P { font-size : 10pt; }

looks OK, but is illegal. Moreover, the error message for last rule
may well be something like "expecting property-name at '}'".

I think therefore, that semicolon should be used as a terminator and
the grammar should be changed accordingly.

Opinions?

Wolfgang Rieger


Buero fuer Software-Entwicklung           Email: rieger@bse.de
                                          WWW  : http://www.bse.de/
Rosenheimer Str. 214                      Phone: +49 89 497738	
81669 Munich, Germany                     Fax  : +49 89 497738

Received on Wednesday, 1 May 1996 10:02:53 UTC