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Bug 333653

Summary:	confusing delimiter (pipe symbol) in cross reference declarations in Xtext Grammars
Product:	[Modeling] TMF	Reporter:	Peter Chern <peter117.20.inka07>
Component:	Xtext	Assignee:	Project Inbox <tmf.xtext-inbox>
Status:	CLOSED WONTFIX	QA Contact:
Severity:	enhancement
Priority:	P3	CC:	sebastian.zarnekow
Version:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Hardware:	PC
OS:	Windows XP
Whiteboard:

Description Peter Chern

2011-01-06 09:00:35 EST

Build Identifier: 

The delimiter to specify the syntax for cross-references happens to be the same symbol (the pipe symbol, "|") as the one used for alternatives in the Xtext grammar. I understand that it is clearly stated in the documentation, which is great - but I think that it is very confusing, especially for new users and Xtext could be made more intuitive by changing it to another symbol.

Reproducible: Always

Comment 1 Sebastian Zarnekow

2011-01-10 11:46:03 EST

Peter,

thanks for the feedback. We'll not change the syntax for cross references as people tend to get used to it and the pipe has been the delimiter since the early days of Xtext. Please note that the syntax highlighting for types (italic by default) will make it even clearer that this is not an alternative but an optional delimiter.

Comment 2 Peter Chern

2011-01-10 14:47:38 EST

Sebastian,

thanks for the comment, I can live with that :) Keep up the great work on Xtext!