1. Short Circut
I can see both sides of this one, but I vote with Rob on this. Boolean
sequence comparisons are needed, as are sequnce-operation type comparisons.
On the grounds of frequency, = would return a boolean, and a keyword would
be used for the sequence operation. But on the grounds of symmetry with the
arithmetic operators, Rob designed it the other way. Personally, I find the
way it is easier to remember--but I'm sure others have the opposite
experience. For me, the deciding factor is that changing = (and >, >=,<,<=,
and !=) would break too much existing code.
Short-cuircuiting is now exactly as in C--and only makes a difference when
part of the statement has a side-effect:
if x>3 and foo(x)!=7 then . . .
if x<=3 then foo will not be executed,
but in
return x>3 and foo(x)!=7
foo will always be executed. I belive this asymmetry was introduced in
response to user requests and I could live without it, though it simplifies
comparisons:
if y!=0 and x/y<100 then . . .
rather than
if y!=0 then
if x/y<100 then . . .
I vote to keep this as it is, but I have no strong feelings on this issue.
-- Mike Nelson
