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Re: [ddlm-group] Space as a list item separator

Title: Re: [ddlm-group] Space as a list item separator
Timely email, come in just after the one I sent.

My position is if we specify the syntax then we encourage its correct use but acknowledge that there may be cases where one might be able to recover intent. But I wouldn’t encourage those cases.

You could say that token separator in lists are a or b or c, but that just adds a level of complexity for very little gain. The choice of comma makes it seamless to translate from the raw CIF data straight in to most language specific data declaration. The only language I know that accepts one or the other or both is MatLab.

What big advantage to a language is there to specify you can use a comma or whitespace as a token separator? Will you be happy with the first person who interprets this as being ok

loop_
  _severalvalues 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 # these being the 7 values of severalvalues

On 27/11/09 11:41 AM, "James Hester" <jamesrhester@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear All: looking over the list I posted previously of items left to resolve, I see only one serious one outstanding: whether or not to allow space as a separator between list items.� Nick has stated:

" I will propose it has to be a comma, but make the coercion rule that space
separated values in a list-type object be coerced into comma separated
values. That is, read spaces as you want, but don't encourage them."

I would like to counter-propose, as Joe did originally, that whitespace be elevated to equal status with comma as a valid list separator.� I see no downside to this.� Would anyone else like to speak to this issue before we vote?� In particular, I would be interested to hear why Nick doesn't want to encourage spaces.

cheers

Nick

--------------------------------
Associate Professor N. Spadaccini, PhD
School of Computer Science & Software Engineering

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