Return-Path: Date: Fri, 12 Apr 91 15:40:36 EDT From: "Arthur W. Protin Jr." (GC-ACCURATE) To: lojban-list@snark.thyrsus.com Cc: Guy Steele Subject: Re: Elision, or: Nick rides again in jbonai Message-Id: <9104121540.aa14560@COR4.PICA.ARMY.MIL> Status: RO X-From-Space-Date: Fri Apr 12 16:48:09 1991 X-From-Space-Address: cbmvax!uunet!PICA.ARMY.MIL!protin Folks, When Guy Steele said ^ The elidable terminators make the language unambiguous, but may often be ^ ^^ ???????? ^Did you mean "ambiguous"? I could not believe he could be so dense. I am very thankful that he took the time to clarify what he was saying, The terminators in question, namely those that happen to be elidable (that's a useful way for me to identify them to you), are required in the language to avoid ambiguity, though in practice they may be omitted in many places. ================ MORE IMPORTANTLY ================ He is also very correct in saying that the grammar is incomplete because it lacks a codification of the rules for eliding terminators. I doubt that many of will use the formal grammar to learn the language but most of us that do use the grammar to analyse the language will profit from a more complete grammar regardless of the number of additional rules needed to make the grammar more complete. So thank you Guy Steele, and thank you all, Art Protin Arthur Protin These are my personal views and do not reflect those of my boss or this installation.