Thread-Topic: xparse
Thread-Index: AcoZ1cUNdhPSvrADR9WC6anqVOccwwAAA4fg
References: <4A7921CF.5020803@morningstar2.co.uk>
            <4A7A1505.4040604@residenset.net>
            <DB76B425-0A88-43B4-9CF0-B92FAF159E37@gmail.com>
            <4A7AD930.2090106@residenset.net>
            <8516B615-51AA-4D90-BB7D-A9E122AA0335@gmail.com>
            <4A804317.6050909@morningstar2.co.uk>
            <A969C9F865F27B428A8E60E39D3CED15201072548A@KIELDERCMS1.open.ac.uk>
            <4A80469B.5040305@morningstar2.co.uk>
Accept-Language: en-US, en-GB
Content-Language: en-US
acceptlanguage: en-US, en-GB
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Message-ID:  <A969C9F865F27B428A8E60E39D3CED15201072548D@KIELDERCMS1.open.ac.uk>
Date:         Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:19:41 +0100
Reply-To: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project
              <LATEX-L@LISTSERV.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE>
Sender: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project <LATEX-L@LISTSERV.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE>
From: "J.Fine" <J.Fine@OPEN.AC.UK>
Subject: Re: xparse
To: LATEX-L@LISTSERV.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE
In-Reply-To:  <4A80469B.5040305@morningstar2.co.uk>
Precedence: list
Status: R

> J.Fine wrote:
> > Hi
> >
> > I'm not sure I understand what it is you want to do, but it does seem to
> me that TeX macros are not a suitable language.
> >
> >
> > Jonathan
>
> Sorry, I'm a bit lost!  Which bit of the thread are we talking about?
> (xparse as-a-concept, post-processing arguments, how to specify
> arguments, ... )

All of the above, taken together.

One starts with parsing key-value arguments in TeX macros, then further features are required, and you start adding features to the LaTeX macros for list processing and the like, and before you know it something has arise that is too complicated for TeX macros.

CVS, as I recall, started as shell scripts to support concurrent use of RCS.  But after a while, shell scripts are no longer suitable.

Hope this helps.

--
Jonathan


The Open University is incorporated by Royal Charter (RC 000391), an exempt charity in England & Wales and a charity registered in Scotland (SC 038302).