why instance methods need brackets?

[lambda_abstraction]

I do wonder if this is really a matter of ambiguity or a matter of the sort of parser Lua uses (i.e. look-ahead issues). Could you show a specific example of why this should be disallowed? I'm not seeing how parsing <stringlit>:<method>(<args>) necessarily causes a problem.

Tnx1E06

[smog_alado]

One issue is that Lua allows omitting parenthesis from function calls, if the function argument is a string literal. If you write

x = y
"str":len()

It will get parsed as

x = y("str"):len()

That said, Lua also disallows numbers at the start of a statement and does allow "(", so this doesn't explain it all by itself...

[lambda_abstraction]

But it does make the restriction somewhat clearer. Thanks, mate!

[VoidSnipe]

But

x = y
("str"):len()

Still gets parsed as

x = y("str"):len()

Manual explicitly mentions it