Re: Pragmas Reqs 6-8

Bethan Tovey-Walsh <bytheway@linguacelta.com> writes:
> As currently drafted, here are items 6-8 from the proposed requirements for adding pragmas to iXML:
>
> 6: It should be straightforward for processors to ignore pragmas they do not recognize.
>
> 7: Processors must be able to determine unambiguously whether they recognize a given pragma or not.

Those seem closely related, but also eminently sensible. If I encounter a pragma, I must be able to identify it and having identified it, I have to be able to determine if it’s one “intended for me”. 

If it’s not intended for me, I imagine it’ll be easy enough to ignore :-)

> 8: A pragma must be distinguishable as such from all other grammar constructs, even if the processor in question does not recognize the specific pragma.

Absolutely. Previous, independent efforts to describe pragmas were forced to shoe-horn them into comments. As the iXML CG, we aren’t actually subject to that constraint. We could decide, for example, that lines beginning with ‘#’ identify pragmas. (I’m not saying we should, but we *could*.)

Whatever syntax we eventually adopt, it must be distinct from all other language constructs.

                                        Be seeing you,
                                          norm

--
Norm Tovey-Walsh
Saxonica

Received on Friday, 24 January 2025 10:27:47 UTC