[TYPES] what is "lexical" about "lexical scoping"?

Norman Ramsey nr at cs.tufts.edu
Wed Jul 29 19:06:52 EDT 2020


This question might be off topic, but I hope not---there is a lot of
knowledge here.  Why is "lexical scoping" called "lexical"?
I'm used to "lexical" referring to properties that describe how
concrete syntax is formed---what constitutes a comment, how characters
are grouped into tokens, and that sort of thing.   The "lexical scope"
used to give meaning to a closure seems more like a property of the
syntax, not of the lexis.

Is there another meaning of "lexical" that I don't know?
Or some interesting history?


Norman Ramsey




More information about the Types-list mailing list