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From: jfriedl@nff.ncl.omron.co.jp (Jeffrey Friedl)
Subject: Re: GNU Extension Language Plans
In-Reply-To: Tom Christiansen's message of 22 Oct 1994 19:35:52 GMT
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References: <9410190420.AA02904@mole.gnu.ai.mit.edu> <id.2E1E1.DMK@nmti.com>
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Date: Sun, 23 Oct 1994 07:06:16 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu gnu.misc.discuss:19090 comp.lang.tcl:20765 comp.lang.scheme:10531 comp.lang.misc:18328 comp.lang.perl:36915

Tom Christiansen <tchrist@mox.perl.com> writes:
|> peter@nmti.com (Peter da Silva) writes:
|> : But there's always been this basic assumption: that you don't add a
|> : feature just because it sounds good. You add it because you need it. 
|> : If there's two ways of doing something you use the one that avoids
|> : complicating the language.  The classic example in Perl is the postfix
|> : if statement. It doesn't add any capability to the language, and it
|> : confuses new users.
|> 
|> Don't make the user through more work than necessary.  If it bothers you
|> that that we in English sometimes naturally express outself with the
|> conditional afterwards, use somthing else.

Well, either thought could be taken to the extreme. For example,
if one has
	if (<expr>) {..}

one doesn't need to allow logical AND within an expression, right?  So
adding it doesn't add any capability to the language, but I think we all
agree that logical AND is a Good Thing.

Similarly, I think we'd all agree that suplementing perl's 'print' with
	print_and_tack_on_a_final_newline
would be superfluous and clutter the language.

We all have a line where "added features" become "added clutter", and it
seems that with Peter, the postfix IF is on a different side than that of
Tom's.  I don't think either opinion is "extream", and can respect both.

FWIW, Personally, I like to use the postfix IF, but think the postfix
UNLESS is on the "clutter" side of the line.

	*jeffrey*
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeffrey E.F. Friedl <jfriedl@omron.co.jp>  Omron Corporation, Kyoto Japan
See my Jap/Eng dictionary at http://www.omron.co.jp/cgi-bin/j-e
                          or http://www.cs.cmu.edu:8001/cgi-bin/j-e

