CAS command question

[Han]

On "why the CAS cannot do this."

By "parser" I mean the bit of code that handles how parameters are passed onto commands. I am not referring to the code that handles direct user input via key presses (which basically checks for proper syntax) or even the one that compiles a written program (again, this is just another syntax checker). During runtime, when a command is executed at the command line, or when the same command is encountered within a program (after all user interaction and relevant I/O have been completed, up to the point where the runstream encounters this command), some bit of code must go through the collection of all the parameters and "parse" them to ensure that 1) they are the correct type and 2) that they are encoded into a form that can be manipulated by the command. This is what I mean "parser" and (though I may be mistaken) this is also where the evaluation probably occurs. This could simply be a subroutine that all CAS commands call prior to actually executing their own code. My understanding, based on what parisse has written, is that these argument checks and object encodings are done external to each individual command.

Quote:(If we were to meet and discuss these details, one on one, I bet that we really don't disagree as much as this post seems to indicate.

Yes, very much so.