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ObjcGrammarTest

by Gregor N. Purdy

1992 Feb 15 11:34-	Genesis.

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This program is a simple demonstration of something
I thought seemed a little strange that is allowed
by NeXT's Objective-C grammar. The grammar info is
in the reference manual "Technical Summaries",
chapter 3.

I think there might be some applications where this
form could actually make sense...

Now, of course, all we need is the ability to do
things like this:

    [myObject putMail:theMail intoMailBox:theBox andBeep];
                                                ^^^^^^^^

Which are currently NOT allowed by the grammar, but could
be added by adding one case on page 3-7 to the end of the
definition of message-selector:

	keyword-argument-list selector

And a similarly-functioning line to method-selector on
page 3-5:

	keyword-selector selector


Other Ideas:

As far as the grammar goes, it would be VERY easy to
add multiple inheritance to Objective-C:


On page 3-4 inside the definitions of "class-interface"
and "class-implementation", just replace "superclass-name"
with "superclass-specifier" and then add the definitions:

	superclass-specifier:
		superclass-name
		{ superclass-list }

	superclass-list:
		superclass-name
		superclass-list, superclass-name

Of course, the hard part is handling it in the runtime
system...


--Gregor


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