Significantly Prettier and Easier C++ Syntax

Significantly Prettier and Easier C++ Syntax or SPECS is an alternative syntactic binding for the semantics of C++.

Design

Designed by Ben Werther and Damian Conway, SPECS has a LALR(1) parsable grammar, which means it is significantly easier to parse than standard C++ syntax, both for computers and for humans alike. Also unlike standard C++ syntax, in SPECS declarations do not look like uses. For example, the fundamental C++ allocation control function set_new_handler has this declaration in orthodox C++ syntax:

void (*set_new_handler(void (*)(void)))(void);

which in SPECS becomes:

func set_new_handler : (^(void->void) -> ^(void->void));

and using typedefs in C++:

typedef void (*new_handler)(void);
new_handler set_new_handler(new_handler);

and in SPECS:

type new_handler : ^(void->void);
func set_new_handler : (new_handler -> new_handler);

Apart from the declaration syntax change, the template syntax is changed to use <[ ]> brackets to make the template keyword unnecessary, several overloaded syntax elements are separated for clarity, := is used for assignment (instead of =), = is used for comparison (instead of ==), blocks for if-, for- and while-statements are mandatory, and there is no fallthrough for switch-statements.

External links

• The Design and Implementation of SPECS: An Alternative C++ Syntax
• A Modest Proposal: C++ Resyntaxed - a shorter version which cites the above