Re: wishlist

Re: wishlist

[Bengt KLEBERG]

> From rc-owner@hawkwind.utcs.toronto.edu Wed May 26 05:07:39 1993
> Date: 	Tue, 25 May 1993 23:02:18 -0400
> From: netapp!byron@netcom.com (Byron Rakitzis)
> To: culliton@srg.af.mil, rc@hawkwind.utcs.toronto.edu
> Subject: Re: wishlist
> Content-Length: 329
> 
> I think it is a little too late to change $^ to $", but maybe that's
> just me. I know it was a drag for me when I switched from if not to
> else, and that was when there were just a few rc users. Now I put the
> install base at 3 figures, possibly 4. I would have to have an extremely
> good reason to break existing scripts right now.
> 
The question is perhaps more rightly put as: How many uses $^ ( and
would need to change to $" ). I must admit that I don't and therefore
I am in favor for getting $" in. It might make me lookup what it is :-)

I also think 'if not' was cute and would happily fix the (very) few
'else' that I have if I got it back.

Bengt

else if not (Re: wishlist)

[Richard Brooksby]

bk@analytikerna.se (Bengt KLEBERG) wrote:

> I also think 'if not' was cute and would happily fix the (very) few
> 'else' that I have if I got it back.

The if/else `problem' has always struck me as really stupid.  BCPL and
LISP get it right.  Just do this:

  if(<condition>) {<true clause>} else {<false clause>}

  when(<condition>) {<true clause>}

Ho hum.
---
Richard Brooksby <richard@harlequin.co.uk>
ML Project / Symbolic Processing Division / Harlequin
+44 223 872522

Re: wishlist

[Chris Siebenmann]

 Let's not break things without an excellent reason.
 At a minimum, let's support both $^ and $" for one release, so people
*don't* have to have a flag day where everything breaks until they fix
it.

	- cks

Re: else if not (Re: wishlist)

[Chris Siebenmann]

 I believe Tom Duff has said in the past that 'if not' was a gory
hack that he was trying hard to get rid of. I consider this a good
reason not to introduce it back into Byron's rc.

	- cks

Re: wishlist

[mycroft]

> The question is perhaps more rightly put as: How many uses $^ ( and
> would need to change to $" ).

I think nearly every rc script I've ever written has a $^ in it
somewhere.

Re: else if not (Re: wishlist)

[Paul Haahr]

> The if/else `problem' has always struck me as really stupid.

the only if/else problem in rc is that it's not compatible with td's rc.
the reason is that if not semantics are awful, as is acknowledged in the
rc paper.  Byron introduced this one change because he thought it was an
improvement worth being incompatible with the plan 9 version.  i agree
with him; the last time we hashed this out on the list it seemed that
was the consensus.

> BCPL and
> LISP get it right.

that's a matter of opinion.  Byron and i picked scheme's cond semantics
for es, because we thought that was right.

paul