Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
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From: sbb@laplace.taligent.com (Steve Byrne)
Subject: Re: Common bugs
In-Reply-To: runarj@ifi.unit.no's message of 4 Nov 1994 13:58:59 GMT
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Date: Sat, 5 Nov 1994 01:15:09 GMT
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In article <39den3$t1f@ugle.unit.no> runarj@ifi.unit.no (Runar Jordahl) writes:

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   From: runarj@ifi.unit.no (Runar Jordahl)
   Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
   Date: 4 Nov 1994 13:58:59 GMT
   Organization: University of Trondheim, Norway
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   Here is a bug many new users of Smalltalk run into:

   x := aNumber+anotherNumber.   Will work, but:
   x := aNumber-anotherNumber.   will now NOT.

   To fix the last line, you have to include a space AFTER the minus-sign.
   So the correct version of line 2 would be:

   x := aNumber- anotherNumber.

Is this true in most Smalltalks?  I know the Blue Book syntax says that this is
a requirement, but with a lexer and parser who cooperate with each other, this
shouldn't be a long term requirement of the language (should it?).

I was looking at how to fix this in GNU Smalltalk, but I haven't implemented it
yet (it's relatively simple).


Steve
