[Versa] Issue 3

[Uche Ogbuji]

On Fri, 2005-08-12 at 10:01 -0600, Michael Olson wrote:
> >
> > I agree with the above.  However, even the process of (parser -->  
> > optimizer --> results) will be slower then (parser --> results).
> >
> > I guess what I am saying is it is:
> >
> > *very* common to use traverse
> > *almost as very* common to use filter
> > *far* less common to need the statement.  After all, you probably  
> > specify 2 of the three parameters in the filter so you know the  
> > statement
> > *hardly* common to get just the predicates.
> >
> 
> 
> I guess I should have finished my thought.  Because of the above, then  
> it makes sense to have some syntactic sweetness (as long as it is not  
> molasses) for the first to cases (like we have).
> 
> Maybe the answer is
> 
> "statement(traversal expression)" and let the engine work this out....
> 
> That would certainly let us stay at 1.0

So it would then be

object(statement(traversal expression)) etc.  ?

We could sneak around on this if we were desperate to keep it at 1.0,
but I think it would be improper because it does change the semantics of
a traversal expression.  Right now A -> B -> C returns a list of
objects, and if statement() has usual function call semantics, I don't
know how it can reconstruct full statements from just each object.  If
statement is more magic than a function, then we have changed the
semantics of the <identifier> '(' <expr> ... ')' production.

I think that technically either case still calls for a 2.0.  Or at least
a 1.5 ;-)


-- 
Uche Ogbuji                               Fourthought, Inc.
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