From: VK on
John G Harris wrote:
> In all the mainstream languages 'identifier' means any sequence of
> characters in a source file that matches the collection of syntax rules
> named either 'Identifier' or 'identifier'.

It is not a "mainstream" definition of identifiers. It is, as I said
earlier, some aggressive mechanicism with the functional part of the
language abruptly removed. If it is indeed not some of your own
definitions but a CS school definition I am really curious where does/
did it reside. I couldn't find such even in Berserkeley which is
always a place to look for some new weird stuff :)
From: John G Harris on
On Thu, 5 Nov 2009 at 09:23:44, in comp.lang.javascript, VK wrote:
>John G Harris wrote:
>> In all the mainstream languages 'identifier' means any sequence of
>> characters in a source file that matches the collection of syntax rules
>> named either 'Identifier' or 'identifier'.
>
>It is not a "mainstream" definition of identifiers. It is, as I said
>earlier, some aggressive mechanicism with the functional part of the
>language abruptly removed. If it is indeed not some of your own
>definitions but a CS school definition I am really curious where does/
>did it reside. I couldn't find such even in Berserkeley which is
>always a place to look for some new weird stuff :)

Well, there's Wikipedia, under 'identifier'.

And there's the Pascal report by Jensen and Wirth.

And there's the C++ standard (which you won't have seen because it costs
money). "An identifier is an arbitrarily long sequence of letters and
digits" ...

And there's the O'Reilly book "C# Essentials". "An identifier must be a
whole word" ...

John
--
John Harris
From: Richard Cornford on
John G Harris wrote:
> On Thu, 5 Nov 2009 at 09:23:44, in comp.lang.javascript, VK wrote:
>>John G Harris wrote:
>>> In all the mainstream languages 'identifier' means any sequence of
>>> characters in a source file that matches the collection of syntax
>>> rules named either 'Identifier' or 'identifier'.
>>
>>It is not a "mainstream" definition of identifiers. It is, as I said
>>earlier, some aggressive mechanicism with the functional part of the
>>language abruptly removed. If it is indeed not some of your own
>>definitions but a CS school definition I am really curious where does/
>>did it reside. I couldn't find such even in Berserkeley which is
>>always a place to look for some new weird stuff :)
>
> Well, there's Wikipedia, under 'identifier'.
<snip>

The Wikiepedia page:-

<URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identifier >

- includes, under the hading "Advantages of the application" the
statment "Since the uniqueness of an identifier, the confusions about
the various descriptions on one substance, one item, one topic, or one
object can be cleared". Which is the sort of VKesque non-sentence that
undermines credabilty.

Richard.