Hi,
Incidently I was just playing with this. The thing that I noticed is
that the Alias function will not reasign the value of a word. 'Help is used
by REBOL as a function. I think you are going to run into the most trouble
trying to 'Alias them.
I would *love* to see Joel run some benchmarks on the difference
between, ?: Help: [], & Help: :?, although I imagine that they are very
close to the same.
I think that it just depends on what you prefer between the first two
options you gave. ;-)
My 2�
--Ammon
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gregg Irwin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, November 09, 2001 2:44 PM
Subject: [REBOL] Best way to alias words
> This is two part question:
>
> Technically, is there a "best" way to define word aliases (the main
> consideration being efficiency)?
>
> From a design perspective what's best for clarity, and ease of
maintenance?
> This is highly subjective of course.
>
> The candiates are:
>
> ;-- Multiple assignment
> obj: context [
> ?: help: does [
> print "Help...coming soon"
> ]
> ]
>
> ;-- Explicit value setting
> obj: context [
> ?: does [
> print "Help...coming soon"
> ]
> help: :?
> ]
>
> ;-- Using 'alias (can be used before or after routine definition)
> obj: context [
> alias '? "help"
> ?: does [
> print "Help...coming soon"
> ]
> ]
>
> The last alternative makes it *very* clear what your intent is, and may
also
> be the most efficient, but I hit a little snag with my example and I'm not
> sure why:
>
> ** Script Error: Alias word is already in use: help
> ** Where: context
> ** Near: alias '? "help"
>
> I haven't figured out what the rules are that cause it to fail. "help" and
> "x" fail, but "xx" and "help-me" work just fine. Does anyone know if alias
> checks against system words for conflicts, not taking the context into
> account?
>
> Let me know what you think, or if you're totally against alias'ing in any
> form.
>
> Thanks!
>
> --Gregg
>
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