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From: phinely@uhunix4.its.Hawaii.Edu (Peter Hinely)
Subject: More Dylan sytax oddities
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Date: Sat, 2 Sep 1995 15:59:37 GMT
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Hi,

I have some more questions about Dylan's syntax.

Why is the syntax for the declaration of global and local variables so 
different?  It seems inconsistent.

  define variable x = 1;    // Declares and initializes a global variable
  let x = 1;                // Declares and initializes a local variable


Why didn't they use a syntax like:

  define global variable x = 1;
  define local variable x = 1;

(or some shortened version of something like that.)


The same can be said of methods:

  define method my-method (x)
    x;
  end method

  local method my-method (x)
    x;
  end;

The words to initialize the global vs. local functions do not follow a 
logical syntax.
Also the statments that end the methods are not the same.
   "end method" vs. "end;"

Also local methods are intialized with the syntax "local method", but 
local variables are initialized with "let".  It seems very inconsistent 
to me.

Or is there something more I should consider?  (I know realize that
"global"  methods provide for generic functions.)

Aloha,
Peter
