Re: Declaration design preference: type or name first

On 30 Oct, 22:29, "cr88192" <cr88...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
....
> one major factor though, is that of context independent parsing.
> having the type first almost invariably leads to context dependent
parsing.
> with the name first, since you already know you are looking at a type,
you
> can be far more lax with the parsing (and maintain context
independence).
>
> example:
> typedef int foo;
>
> ...
> foo bar;    //only makes sense if the parser knows about foo

Agreed.

> var bar: foo;
> the parser can easily figure out what is going on, regardless of whether
or
> not it knows about foo.

True. One thing I would sometimes like in C is to be able to search
the source code for declarations but there is no common way to
identify them. My current syntax suggests/requires a keyword so I am
using "var" for any variable and "value" for a named or unnamed
arbitrary constant (not "constant" but that's another topic!).

> but, of course, there are many other strong considerations (such as, for
> example, nearly all c-family languages putting the type name first,
...).

Didn't Dennis Ritchie of one of his colleagues design a language long
after C where he put the name first, then the type, thus reversing the
order used in C? If he changed to that form I wonder what the reason
was. Maybe long experience suggested that was a better way to go.....