OpenEuphoria

RE: GOTO - A fresh perspective?

• Posted by Kenneth Riviere <joker at riviere.ws> Feb 10, 2002
• 468 views

Kat wrote:
> Simply allowing backwards-looking target resolution would have meant 
> routine_id() wasn't needed. It would have been simple, imho, simply 
> don't 
> raise an error for undefined word until it is still undefined at the end 
> of the 
> compile. Somehow, to me, tossing in patches like "routine_id()" breaks 
> the 
> vision of the language far more than a moderately restricted "goto" like 
> Karl 
> made. If nothing else, Rob could have made the "routine_id()" internal, 
> acting 
> by default on all functions and procedures, and simply said "from now 
> on, 
> you don't need to define the function before you call it". But instead, 
> he 
> added a new word to the language.
> 

I agree with this 100%.  Of course, not having routine_id would break 
Win32lib all over the place.  In order to be able to "register" a 
routine to associate with an event there would still have to be some way 
to pass something so that the routine can be linked into that library.  
Of course, such a radical change as backward-looking target resolution 
might have other consequences which would make linking into an event 
handler easier.


> Sequences are great, truely wonderful, as good as chocolate. I use them 
> as 
> strings, as nested strings, as data files. I don't restrict them to a 
> string type 
> where "char" must be only one char. Sequences means i don't haveto map 
> arrays of byte over the strings, and make wierd arrays of pointers to 
> each 
> part of the string like i was doing in pascal. Nested sequences means i 
> can 
> return nests of things, not one predefined thing. Giving us Lisp's 
> sequences 
> with a Basic language syntax, that's Eu's claim to fame. 

Again, I agree.  The sequences and the ease with which complex data can 
be nested even beyond the limits of RAM are the thing that excites me 
most about Euphoria.  I was ready to use it based on that before I 
realized how much faster it is than many other languages (my 
long-beloved perl is left in the dust by Euphoria based on speed).


> Allowing better flow 
> control with a "goto", even more use of the sequences with exec(sequence 
> 
> s), threads, etc., can only make Eu better and more appealing to a wider 
> 
> audience.
> 
> Kat

And here we part ways.  Different drummers, I guess.

-JoKeR