Hi, Maxim,
Pardon my being picky, but we can take your point even
further...
Maxim Olivier-Adlhoch wrote:
>
> in rebol, creating a function is an expression! so you usually write:
>
>>funcname: func [arg] [put your code here]
>
Although we *may* write something like that, when we do so
we are actually combining two distinct concepts in one
expression:
1) defining a function, and
2) making a particular word refer to that function.
and the habit of thinking of those two together results in
one of the standard newbie questions:
"How can I find out the name of this function?"
which is no more meaninful than asking for "the name" of a
value of any other type. (Of course, that's what it means
to say that functions are first-class values...)
"How can I find out the name of 2?"
"How can I find out the name of {Hello, world!}?"
etc.
>
> Now, how many languages will handle a stray value in code
> without choking... not even python will let you insert a
> string anywhere in its code, if its not being used by a
> function.
> ...
> python or c would give you a syntax error, because it excepts
> ALL values to be part of a structure, which is defined by
> strict syntax and parenthesis useage. When it encouters
> bogus data, it just cant handle it, cause it differentiates
> values and functions. IMHO rebol does not. They really are
> all just values, even functions.
>
The following (console transcript) shows that one *can* insert
values (e.g. strings) into the body of a Python function when
such values aren't actually used for anything.
>>> def somefunc (x, y):
... """silly function containing pointless string"""
... x2 = x * x;
... y2 = y * y;
... "foo?";
... print x2 + y2;
...
>>> somefunc (3, 4)
25
One can do similar things in Perl. The parser will let
you know that the value is not used; surely you don't think
that's all bad??? How many of us have *never* made a typo
in a REBOL script that changed the meaning of something in
a way that produced an error, but the interpreter never
helped us find it? (However, Perl will still run your
program after whining at you.)
For example, take a largish REBOL script and delete a single
occurrence of '+ somewhere in the middle.
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Joel Neely joelDOTneelyATfedexDOTcom 901-263-4446
Enron Accountingg in a Nutshell: 1c=$0.01=($0.10)**2=(10c)**2=100c=$1
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