[664] in Coldmud discussion meeting
Let's re-open the assignments as expressions debate
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Tue Mar 7 09:03:20 1995
)
From: crag@serial.MIT.EDU (Robert de Forest )
To: coldstuff@MIT.EDU
Date: Tue, 7 Mar 1995 07:55:30 -0600 (CST)
Some time ago the question of whether there should be an assignment expression
or not was raised and never quite answered to anyone's satisfaction. I wish to
reopen the debate having modified a version of the server to make x=y an
expression.
Greg's postion is that assignment expressions lead to bad style which should
not be permitted if the language is to be readable and gain acceptance.
Quinn's argument is that the programmer should be given the freedom to choose
how ugly or unreadable his code is.
I decided to try it out because it makes certain familar code structures
much simpler, particularly:
if (test1=.test1()) {
.use(test1);
} else if (test2=.test2()) {
.use(test2);
} else {
}
as well as
while (test = .test())
.use(test);
Is anyone still interested in Cold? Will ColdX take over Cold's role in the
world? Is anyone more interested in the old Cold now that it may gain this
patch? Will Brandon add this to ColdX? Will Colin put this in his server?
Does anyone care about Cold at all anymore?
Crag