Ele function marked as invalid syntax

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From Bogdan<iancu.v.bogdan@gmail.com>:

"I have a little problem with RuleBender, I'm trying to use the Ele function as 
a rate Law but apparently RuleBender does not recognize it,  is it implemented 
there or am I doing something wrong?"

I have not looked much further into this, but it sounds like an issue in the 
parser.  

Original issue reported on code.google.com by AdamMatthewSmith on 11 Feb 2013 at 12:20

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It would be useful to see a model example that produces the error.

I sense that there may be some confusion about the way elementary rate laws are 
invoked. Elementary ratelaws are assumed if a number, parameter, or math 
expression (without  observable or function calls) follows the products of a 
reaction rule, e.g.

A + B -> C  k

This reaction rule has a total rate of k*|A|*|B|, according to elementary 
kinetic principles.  If one attempts to access the elementary type by writing 
something like "Ele(k)", e.g.

A + B -> C  Ele(k)

that won't work!  There is no special "Ele" keyword. Just write the rate 
constant and the elementary ratelaw will be assumed.

Original comment by justinshogg on 13 Feb 2013 at 1:13

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I'm surprised by this actually. Note 20 of the BNG Bible discusses rate law 
types and states that: "the three recognized rate law types are 'Ele', 'Sat', 
and 'MM'." Therefore, although I had never tried it, I always assumed that 
"Ele(k)" was valid syntax and equivalent to just "k". Even though it's not 
strictly necessary, I'm tempted to support Ele() as a special function for the 
sake of completeness. I plan to reimplement Sat(), MM(), and Hill() at some 
point anyway. Any one else have any thoughts on this?

Original comment by lh64@cornell.edu on 13 Feb 2013 at 1:34

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Note 20 does make it seem as if "Ele(k)" will work. In contrast, the main text 
describes the Elementary ratelaw as default and makes no mention of any keyword.

Personally, I think we should avoid special ratelaws as much as possible. A 
little feature is simple enough by itself, but the accumulation of these 
special ratelaws is a large burden for future software maintenance.

Since this is the first time I've heard of this confusion, and since none of 
the examples use the "Ele" keyword, I think it's best to leave this as is.

Original comment by justinshogg on 13 Feb 2013 at 1:48

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Original comment by lh64@cornell.edu on 27 Jun 2014 at 10:42