Com S 342 meeting -*- Outline -*-

* means of combination syntax
** syntax of expressions (vs. statements)
   Q: What should the syntax be for expressions?
        want to use conventional infix syntax (unlike Scheme/Lisp)

        want to use parentheses for controlling order of evaluation
        So can't use () for calling functions (only for grouping)        
        in Oz, use {...} for procedure calls, so () only means grouping

        no commas (so comma is an operator), more regular

   Q: How should we make literals/symbols?

        in Oz and Prolog, use case of first character to distinguish: 
           - starts with lowercase is an atom (symbol)
           - starts with Upper Case is a (dataflow) variable name

** commands and combinations of commands (statements)
   Q: What commands do we need?
   
        unification of dataflow variables (=),
	assignment (:=) to cells, sequencing, if-then-else,
        perhaps other special forms

	terms: expression language vs. statement language

        in Oz

           primitive            compound
           ================================
           Cell := E            if B then S1 else S2 end
           skip                 S1 ... Sn                          
           X = Y                local X in S end                   
           X = E                thread S end                       
           raise E end          case E0 of pat1 then S1 else S2 end
           {P Arg1 ... Argn}    for I in E do S end