Re: [PATCH] Do not allow identifiers that start with a negative number.

[Joel E. Denny]

On Sat, 8 Jan 2011, Paul Eggert wrote:

> On 01/08/2011 10:29 AM, Joel E. Denny wrote:
> > id       -|({letter}|-({letter}|-))({letter}|[-0-9])*
> 
> Sorry, I guess I don't understand the point of this.
> Why should "---39---" be an identifier?

I thought we were adding the simple rule that an identifier cannot begin 
with a negative integer.  "---39---" does not begin with a negative 
integer.

> And if so,
> why should "--39--" *not* be an identifier?

Who says it shouldn't?

> The more I think about this, the more I think that it
> is a mistake for Bison to allow "-" in identifiers.
> This is incompatible with C and with C++ and with Java,

Any more than "."?

> and is bound to lead to more problems elsewhere.

Such as?

> Can someone remind me why we're doing this?

It's consistent with other identifiers in Bison.  Some of us think "-" is 
easier to type and read than "_".  And, so far, I've seen no compelling 
reason not to do this.