[coined by Peter Landin] Features added to a language or other
formalism to make it `sweeter' for humans, but which do not affect
the expressiveness of the formalism (compare {chrome}). Used esp.
when there is an obvious and trivial translation of the `sugar'
feature into other constructs already present in the notation. C's
a[i] notation is syntactic sugar for *(a + i). "Syntactic sugar
causes cancer of the semicolon." -- Alan Perlis.
The variants syntactic saccharin and syntactic syrup are also
recorded. These denote something even more gratuitous, in that
syntactic sugar serves a purpose (making something more acceptable to
humans), but syntactic saccharin or syrup serve no purpose at all.
Compare {candygrammar}, {syntactic salt}.
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {candygrammar}{syntactic salt}]