Many people have pointed out the 'semicolon problem' with if and
else--that is, if Perl intuits a semicolon after every codeblock that
ends a blank line, you would have to cuddle all your elses:
if $cond {
...
} <-- Virtual semicolon here
else {
...
}
My proposed solution to this is to make ALL codeblocks take an optional
'else', accessed by the $code.else attribute. Depending on what sort of
builtin was being used, the else would mean different things:
sub if($cond, &code) {
$cond ?? code() :: &code.else();
}
sub while(&cond, &code) {
if(cond()) {
#There's probably a way to do an
# else without a goto, but...
TOP:
code();
return unless cond();
goto TOP;
}
else {
&code.else();
}
}
sub for(@list is lazy, &code) {
while(@list) {
&code(@list.unshift);
}
else {
&code.else();
}
}
The else on a subroutine declaration might be called if preconditions
(PRE and POST) didn't match, or it might just be ignored.
else would be able to take a single subroutine call instead of a block:
if $cond {
...
}
else if $cond2 {
...
}
Yes, I know this means that we have 'else if' instead of 'elsif', but
it's only two more characters and it makes the grammar cleaner.
--Brent Dax <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
@roles=map {"Parrot $_"} qw(embedding regexen Configure)
>How do you "test" this 'God' to "prove" it is who it says it is?
"If you're God, you know exactly what it would take to convince me. Do
that."
--Marc Fleury on alt.atheism
