[sc34wg3] CTM: Semicolons

[Lars Marius Garshol]

* Lars Heuer
>
> Yep, but at TMRA'08 I gave a CTM tutorial [1] and here is the list of
> the most asked questions:
>
> - Do we need semicolons at all?
> - Can we make semicolons optional?
> - If semicolons cannot be optional, shouldn't every statement end with
>  a semicolon (template calls, associations etc.)
>
> Since the committee insists on semicolons, we need semicolons and
> since the committee thinks we shouldn't make semicolons optional, I
> tend to agree that every statement should end with a semicolon just to
> be consistent.

I find this difficult, I must say. I really don't want the wretched  
things at all, and now here we sit trying to judge where to put this  
pollution and where to leave it out, while the people who wanted extra  
punctuation are silent. So effectively we're having to work out the  
details of a policy we disagree with.

I think that it could be possible to overturn the decision, but only  
by appealing to people outside the committee. If you could somehow get  
a clear mandate from the community for or against semicolons then we  
could settle this once and for all. But by withdrawing from the  
committee the proponents of semicolons have basically made discussion  
of this decision impossible. And given the form the discussion took  
when we had it that might be just as well.

If you want to make an appeal to the community for a decision I'll be  
happy to help you with that, but until that happens I'm going to take  
the presence of semicolons all over this otherwise lovely syntax as a  
given.

So I guess what this boils down to is: I'd rather not have semicolons  
anywhere other than between topic block properties, but I can live  
with this. If you seriously do prefer to have them everywhere, and  
nobody else speaks up, I think we should let you decide, since you are  
the editor.

--Lars M.
http://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/
http://www.garshol.priv.no/tmphoto/