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From: bakul@netcom.com (Bakul Shah)
Subject: a few basic questions
Message-ID: <bakulD7rut5.FLw@netcom.com>
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Sat, 29 Apr 1995 01:00:41 GMT
Lines: 41
Sender: bakul@netcom22.netcom.com

I have been reading the Beta book (Object-Oriented Programming in
the BETA Programming Language) and have some questions.  I looked
though the Beta FAQ and various publicly available on-line
sources but did not find answers to these quesions.

1. Are Beta identifiers case sensitive?

2. Are Beta keywords case sensitive?  In various sources
   I have seen `INNER' as well as `inner' which leads me
   to believe may be they are not.

3. What characters are allowed in identifiers?  More generally,
   grammar described in the appendix A of the Beta book does
   not give any syntax rules for terminals symbols
   such as identifiers and numbers.

4. Syntax for the If-imperative does not specify (if E then I if)
   as valid but I have seen this syntax used in a number of
   examples elsewhere (i.e. not in the Beta book).  Which is
   right?

5. Page 62 shows two forms for labeled imperatives.  The second
   form ``(L: Imp1; ... :L)'' does not match what is in appendix
   A.  I suspect appendix A is wrong. Also, what is the `scope'
   of a label? For example, is ``(L: (L: 1 :L) :L)'' valid?

6. I am curious about why Beta only allows one dimensional arrays.
   Why is
	col:(# cell: [columns] @real #);
	m1: [rows]@col
   preferable to
	m1:[rows][columns]@real
   ?

I realize that the Beta book is not a formal language reference
so please don't think of the above questions as a criticism of it.
I am simply curious.

Thanks for any information.

Bakul Shah <bakul@netcom.com>