From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Message-Id: <200206131740.NAA26006@math.psu.edu>
To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu
Subject: Re: [9fans] bug or a feature?
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Wed, 12 Jun 2002 21:01:53 EDT."
             <dbd76fb1c636210fa6c0c37968c4b35f@plan9.bell-labs.com>
From: Dan Cross <cross@math.psu.edu>
Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2002 13:40:10 -0400
Topicbox-Message-UUID: ac2bacee-eaca-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025

> > (And while we're at it, can we add ``else'' to Plan 9 rc?)
>
> i was hoping someone would add if not to unix rc.

Why?  `if not' is a hack, even according to td's rc paper, which has this
to say about it:

	The one bit of large-scale syntax that Bourne unquestionably
	does better than rc is the if statement with else clause.

The rationale is explained in the following paragraphs, but apparantly,
Unix rc has fixed that.  Indeed, the specific example given in td's
paper is handled in a reasonable way.

btw- there seems to be a problem with the html version of the rc paper
on the Bell Labs web site; my browser shows the latter half in italics.

	- Dan C.