[CL] Clarification of section A.2.3.11 in 24707

[Cameron Ross]

Hi Pat,

One final question in-line below:

Cameron.


Pat Hayes wrote:
>
> On Nov 30, 2009, at 3:24 PM, Cameron Ross wrote:
>
>> The 24707 defect report indicates that the productions in Section 
>> A.2.3.11 should be written as:
>>
>> (a) phrase = sentence | module | ( open, 'cl-imports', 
>> interpretablename, close ) | ( open, 'cl-comment', enclosedname 
>> [cltext], close );
>
> as I recall, that last entry should be
>
> (open, 'cl-comment', (enclosedname | quotedstring), [cltext], close)
>
> This is to allow the use of either double or single quotes to enclose 
> the comment text.
>
>>
>> (b) text = { phrase };
>>
>> (c) namedtext = open, 'cl-text', interpretablename, text, close;
>>
>> (d) cltext = module | namedtext | text;
>>
>>
>>
>> I have the following questions related to these productions:
>>
>> 1)  What is the purpose of the last alternative in production (a)?
>
> To allow comments to be attached to top-level phrases and entire 
> subtexts. For example
>
>
> (cl-text
> ...
> (cl-comment "these axioms are used to define algebraic properties"
> ...
> )
> ...
> )
>
> where each ... is a whole sequence of axioms (phrases). The use of 
> enclosedname here is simply to allow the use of double quotes (as well 
> as single quotes, c.f. earlier remark)  to enclose comment text. The 
> comment is not intended to be interpreted as a name semantically.
>
>>
>> 2)  Given last alternative in production (a), what is the purpose of 
>> production (c) given ?
>
> To attach a 'real' name to a text, this name being then used to import 
> the text elsewhere. In this production, the name is understood to 
> refer to the text.
>
I'm not sure if this is an implementation detail for my parser, or if 
its a detail for the CLIF grammar... 

I need to define a "starting rule" for my parser and production (b) 
above seems a likely candidate.  However, this choice would preclude 
production (c) from being a "free-standing" sentence.  That is, one 
could not directly attach a name to a text to enable importation.  I can 
easily define my own starting rule, but I'm wondering if this is 
something that should be stated explicitly within the CLIF grammar.

>>
>> 3)  How do these relate to each other?
>
> Hardly at all.
>
>>
>> 4)  Should [cltext] really be optional?
>
> Yes, to allow 'in-line' comments not enclosing any CL content, acting 
> as 'headers' in the text.
>
> Pat
>
>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> CL mailing list
>> CL at philebus.tamu.edu
>> http://philebus.tamu.edu/mailman/listinfo/cl
>>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> IHMC                                     (850)434 8903 or (650)494 3973
> 40 South Alcaniz St.           (850)202 4416   office
> Pensacola                            (850)202 4440   fax
> FL 32502                              (850)291 0667   mobile
> phayesAT-SIGNihmc.us       http://www.ihmc.us/users/phayes
>
>
>
>
>