At 11:38 AM 8/31/00 +0200, Bart Lateur wrote:
>The articial distinction between
>
> do BLOCK while condition;
>
>and
>
> EXPR while condition;
>
>should go, because the former is nothing but a subcase of the latter.
>Currently, the former executes the do BLOCK at least once, while the
>latter tests the condition before doing the first loop -- and possibly
>skipping it. Either both should do the test first, or execute at least
>once.
I don't agree. I find both intuitive. The second case is a postfix
modifier, so my brain translates it to "shorthand for while (condition) {
EXPR }". To change its semantics would break the symmetry of statement
modifiers. The first case is the same syntax and semantics as several
languages I can recall using, although I'm too burned out at the moment to
think what they are; but it's quite intuitive nonetheless.
Get rid of some of the other weird uses of 'do', yes...
--
Peter Scott
Pacific Systems Design Technologies
