On 2/26/07, P. R. Stanley
Back to the comma, surely, syntax sugar fulfills the role of an operator, a function, or a sequence of low-level procedures, either in part or comprehensively. In C, for example, iteration could be implemented using the if construct with the dreaded goto command. So, strictly speaking, the while loop could be classed as syntax sugar. Yet, the while loop is a well-recognized construct in its own right. I hope you can see what I'm driving at.
It's useful to see the square-bracket-and-comma list notation in Haskell as syntactic sugar because you don't need to worry about what it means; you just need to know how to mentally translate it into applications of cons and nil, and you already know what those means. Indeed, Haskell compilers are based on that same principle. Cheers, Kirsten -- Kirsten Chevalier* chevalier@alum.wellesley.edu *Often in error, never in doubt "Apathy at the individual level translates into insanity at the mass level." -- Douglas Hofstadter