Why use strict parsing rules?

In x86 assembly language, you write a move instruction like this:

MOV EAX, 13

My emulator accepts that. But right now it also accepts:

MOV EAX 13
MOV EAX,, 13
MOV EAX,,,,,,,,, 13

In other words, I only require that I can separate the tokens in the instruction somehow.

My question to you is: other than trying to be exactly like Intel's assembly language, why be more strict? So long as the interpreter / compiler can figure out what the programmer wants, why fuss over how many commas are used?

In other words, why not parse as leniently as possible, and only complain when a situaiton is ambiguous or otherwise unresolvable?

Comments

  1. You could even accept MOVE.

    ReplyDelete
  2. If this is an educational tool, I'd use strict parsing because most languages require it and I wouldn't want the students to develop habits that will bite them later.

    ReplyDelete

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