From rlpowell@digitalkingdom.org Fri Apr 30 15:23:22 2004
Received: with ECARTIS (v1.0.0; list lojban-list); Fri, 30 Apr 2004 15:23:22 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from rlpowell by chain.digitalkingdom.org with local (Exim 4.31)
	id 1BJgPc-00053R-Cq
	for lojban-list@lojban.org; Fri, 30 Apr 2004 15:23:16 -0700
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 15:23:16 -0700
To: lojban-list@lojban.org
Subject: [lojban] Why capital letters standing in for letterals is a *bad* idea.
Message-ID: <20040430222316.GC14939@digitalkingdom.org>
Mail-Followup-To: lojban-list@lojban.org
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Disposition: inline
User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.5.1+cvs20040105i
From: Robin Lee Powell <rlpowell@digitalkingdom.org>
X-archive-position: 7599
X-ecartis-version: Ecartis v1.0.0
Sender: lojban-list-bounce@lojban.org
Errors-to: lojban-list-bounce@lojban.org
X-original-sender: rlpowell@digitalkingdom.org
Precedence: bulk
Reply-to: lojban-list@lojban.org
X-list: lojban-list

Some people use capital letters in Lojban to represent letterals,
similar to English acronyms.

I just realized what the problem is with this: it introduces ambiguity,
because capital letters can be used in names.

Is

    XAX xamgu

the same as

    xy abu xy xamgu

or the (valid, but strange) name and brivla

    xax xamgu

?

Every parser agrees that both are valid, and if capital letters can be
used as letterals, there's no way to tell the difference.

-Robin

-- 
http://www.digitalkingdom.org/~rlpowell/  ***  I'm a *male* Robin.
"Many philosophical problems are caused by such things as the simple
inability to shut up." -- David Stove, liberally paraphrased.
http://www.lojban.org/  ***  loi pimlu na srana .i ti rokci morsi