- From: Jonathan Robie <jonathan.robie@datadirect.com>
- Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 09:36:12 -0400
- To: Xavier Franc <xfranc@online.fr>
- Cc: public-qt-comments@w3.org
Xavier Franc wrote: > > > as a follow-up of discussion on www-ql@w3.org > <http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-ql/> > about syntax issues: > http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-ql/2004AprJun/0029.html > http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-ql/2004AprJun/0025.html > > I suggest, if it is not too late, the following change: > > - make optional the separator ';' between prolog declarations. > > (unless this creates a real lexical issue but it doesn't seem to > be the case.) > > Though the semicolon can improve readability in some > cases, it is both heavy, ugly and unnecessary > after functions or variable initializations. To me, making them optional is the worst possible approach - XQuery processors would still need to be able to parse the language with or without the semicolons. If we were to do that, it would be better to simply remove the semicolons so everybody writes queries with the same syntax. But the semicolons do make error reporting easier, and simplify parsing of the language. More importantly, they also make it more likely that future versions of XQuery will have the flexibility they need to extend the language. Jonathan
Received on Monday, 26 April 2004 09:37:54 UTC