[stringtemplate-interest] another tweak

[Zenaan Harkness]

On Sun, Jul 12, 2009 at 12:05:40PM -0700, Terence Parr wrote:
> On Jul 11, 2009, at 5:59 PM, Zenaan Harkness wrote:
>>> Yeah, it's too bad I'm rebuilding ST starting in a month or two  
>>> without a
>>> book concurrently ;)
>>
>> <cough>StringTemplate Specification<cough>
>>
>> <advocate>The small YAML community (perhaps not so small any more) is a
>> great example of production of a specification, and the benefits
>> thereof. <append 'repetition of previous links etc'/></>
>
> ha! I knew you were going to say that! ;)  Yes, it makes sense to come  
> up with a spec as I write the software. Perhaps I can look at it as  
> spec-driven development? :)

<hearty approval>

And the beauty of this situation: we already have a current,
comprehensive implementation, with a goodly (though incomplete) number
of test cases :)

It really would be remiss of us to not take this opportunity (v3 rewrite)
to write an ST Specification. This is a duty of care incumbent upon us,
to each of the following groups:
   -  the ST using community
   -  ST test case authors
   -  ST implementers (eg C#, Python implementations etc)
   -  academics studying languages
   -  ST improvement attempts

A specification is simply a great foundation for all such activities.

AND we have fine examples abounding, to draw much from, such as JSON,
YAML, XML, RFCs, etc.

Please post link to outline, for review. I trust I can be of at least a
small modicum of review assistance.

Thanks heaps
Zen

PS There's much keen interest now, and overly activated salivory glands!

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