yield syntax (diverging from: How would shallow generators compose with lambda?)

[Neil Mix]

On May 14, 2009, at 2:38 PM, Brendan Eich wrote:

> Indeed the low-precedence (same as assignment) nature of the yield  
> unary caused JS1.7 to follow Python in requiring parentheses around  
> yield expressions in lists: in comma expressions and actual  
> parameter lists (although we diverged from Python by allowing an  
> unparenthesized yield expression as the last actual argument in a  
> call or new expression's parameter list -- Python requires  
> foo((yield bar)) instead of foo(yield bar)).

I have this idea that it would be better for yield expressions to look  
like function calls: 'yield' '(' expression? ')'.  (Note that this is  
only a syntactical suggestion; clearly an implementation wouldn't  
actually treat it like a function.)  That would eliminate the  
precedence issues Brendan cites while also making the syntax backward  
compatible with earlier ES parsers.  Is there any technical reason why  
that wouldn't be possible?

Perhaps the "looks-like-a-duck, quacks-like-a-cow" objection would  
apply here -- a corner-case thingy that looks like a function but  
isn't should be avoided.  But I have to say, in practice the required  
parenthesizing around yield expressions in JS 1.7 is an eyesore I'd  
like to see go away.