WikiDiscuss

WikiDiscuss


Magic Words

posts: 14214

On Mon, Nov 08, 2004 at 07:00:24AM -0800, Jorge Llamb?as wrote:
> > it's more like "erases the word in front of it, except when ...
> > and when ... and when ..."
>
> When we are describing the word in isolation, that's true. When we
> describe how the whole thing works together, they are not
> exceptions.
>
> > Simplicity, too, is all in how you look at it.
>
> Yes, I agree. I find the "first come first served" meta-rule the
> simplest among the alternatives considered so far.

OK, we have a conflation problem.

xorxes' proposal introduces *two* rules: left-to-right ordering,

  • and* consumption of clauses rather than words.


John was talking about the latter, but xorxes responded as though he
was talking about the former.

One way to look at xorxes' SI is "SI consumes words, or clauses
formed by other magic words".

The other way (and, in fact, the much more likely way for someone
who hasn't internalized formalized grammars to see it) is "SI
consumes words, or zo+word, or zoi+delim+stuff+delim, or word+bu,
or, or, or, or...".

This was John's point; left-to-right ordering has nothing to do with
it.

-Robin