• Dibyendu Majumdar (4/4) Nov 20 2020 The language spec uses the term symbol but I don't think this
• Max Haughton (3/7) Nov 20 2020 Anything other than an expression?
• H. S. Teoh (5/13) Nov 20 2020 A symbol is not an expression. It may *refer* to an expression, though.
• Paul Backus (3/5) Nov 20 2020 In fact, an expression is one of the few things a symbol *cannot*
• Paul Backus (5/9) Nov 20 2020 A symbol is a name that refers to some entity in the program--a
• Basile B. (20/24) Nov 20 2020 I'd go for something like that:
• Paul Backus (3/5) Nov 20 2020 A symbol is not a declaration. `int x;` is a declaration, but `x`
• Basile B. (4/11) Nov 20 2020 `int x;` is a variable declaration. Variable declarations are all
• Paul Backus (8/15) Nov 20 2020 You're confusing the map for the territory. The fact that

Dibyendu Majumdar <mobile majumdar.org.uk> writes:

The language spec uses the term symbol but I don't think this 
term is defined anywhere.

What would be the best way to define it (other than saying it is 
a symbol in symbol table in the compiler)?

Max Haughton <maxhaton gmail.com> writes:

On Friday, 20 November 2020 at 19:03:30 UTC, Dibyendu Majumdar 
wrote:
 The language spec uses the term symbol but I don't think this 
 term is defined anywhere.

 What would be the best way to define it (other than saying it 
 is a symbol in symbol table in the compiler)?

Anything other than an expression?

"H. S. Teoh" <hsteoh quickfur.ath.cx> writes:

On Fri, Nov 20, 2020 at 07:10:41PM +0000, Max Haughton via Digitalmars-d wrote:
 On Friday, 20 November 2020 at 19:03:30 UTC, Dibyendu Majumdar wrote:
 The language spec uses the term symbol but I don't think this term is
 defined anywhere.
 
 What would be the best way to define it (other than saying it is a
 symbol in symbol table in the compiler)?

 
 Anything other than an expression?

A symbol is not an expression.  It may *refer* to an expression, though.


T

-- 
"Real programmers can write assembly code in any language. :-)" -- Larry Wall

Paul Backus <snarwin gmail.com> writes:

On Friday, 20 November 2020 at 19:25:26 UTC, H. S. Teoh wrote:
 A symbol is not an expression.  It may *refer* to an 
 expression, though.

In fact, an expression is one of the few things a symbol *cannot* 
refer to.

Paul Backus <snarwin gmail.com> writes:

On Friday, 20 November 2020 at 19:03:30 UTC, Dibyendu Majumdar 
wrote:
 The language spec uses the term symbol but I don't think this 
 term is defined anywhere.

 What would be the best way to define it (other than saying it 
 is a symbol in symbol table in the compiler)?

A symbol is a name that refers to some entity in the program--a 
module, a package, a type, a function, a variable, a template, or 
an `enum` constant. (I think that's the complete list.)

Basile B. <b2.temp gmx.com> writes:

On Friday, 20 November 2020 at 19:03:30 UTC, Dibyendu Majumdar 
wrote:
 The language spec uses the term symbol but I don't think this 
 term is defined anywhere.

 What would be the best way to define it (other than saying it 
 is a symbol in symbol table in the compiler)?

I'd go for something like that:

«A symbol is a declaration. This includes

- variables
- functions
- aggregate types (classes, structures, unions, interfaces)
- aliases
- templates
- enumerations
- modules
- imports

One of the most basic but important task of the compiler is to 
resolve identifiers to symbols. Identifiers as found in 
expressions are never symbols but they always resolve to one. If 
an identifier cannot be resolved to a symbol then compilation 
stops.»

See also [1].

[1] 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbol_

Paul Backus <snarwin gmail.com> writes:

On Friday, 20 November 2020 at 21:16:47 UTC, Basile B. wrote:
 I'd go for something like that:

 «A symbol is a declaration. This includes

A symbol is not a declaration. `int x;` is a declaration, but `x` 
by itself is not.

Basile B. <b2.temp gmx.com> writes:

On Friday, 20 November 2020 at 21:23:24 UTC, Paul Backus wrote:
 On Friday, 20 November 2020 at 21:16:47 UTC, Basile B. wrote:
 I'd go for something like that:

 «A symbol is a declaration. This includes

 A symbol is not a declaration. `int x;` is a declaration, but 
 `x` by itself is not.

`int x;` is a variable declaration. Variable declarations are all 
symbols (DSymbol in the compiler). `x` in this case represents 
the symbol name, `int` its type.

Paul Backus <snarwin gmail.com> writes:

On Saturday, 21 November 2020 at 00:02:15 UTC, Basile B. wrote:
 On Friday, 20 November 2020 at 21:23:24 UTC, Paul Backus wrote:
 A symbol is not a declaration. `int x;` is a declaration, but 
 `x` by itself is not.

 `int x;` is a variable declaration. Variable declarations are 
 all symbols (DSymbol in the compiler). `x` in this case 
 represents the symbol name, `int` its type.

You're confusing the map for the territory. The fact that 
`Declaration` is a subclass of `Dsymbol` in the DMD frontend does 
not necessarily mean that a declaration *is* a symbol from the 
perspective of the language spec.

For example, `StaticAssert` is also a subclass of `Dsymbol`, but 
I don't think anyone would seriously argue that `static assert(x 
== y)` is a symbol.