OpenEuphoria

Re: Suggestions for ESL

• Posted by "Juergen Luethje" <j.lue at gmx.de> Jul 24, 2005
• 462 views

Tommy Carlier wrote:

> Juergen Luethje wrote:
>>> - a mechanism to ignore return-values of functions. Some options:
>>>   -> a global variable VOID: VOID = functionToIgnore(...) (like Win32Lib)
>>>   -> a procedure ignore that does nothing: ignore(functionToIgnore()) (like
>>>   Win4Eu)
>>
>> I like both suggestions. Hard to say which one is "better".
>
> I like the ignore-procedure, because it can only be used for ignoring stuff.
> The global variable VOID can be used for storing temporary data and can be
> passed to other routines, and that's not its purpose. I also think it reads
> better. The code just says what it does: it calls a function and 'ignores'
> the return value.

That sounds reasonable.

>>> - an enumeration-mechanism: here's how it was done in Win4Eu:
>>>   }}}
<eucode>
>>>   constant DAY_OF_WEEK = enum()
>>>   constant MONDAY = next(DAY_OF_WEEK),
>>>            TUESDAY = next(DAY_OF_WEEK),
>>>            WEDNESDAY = next(DAY_OF_WEEK),
>>>            THURSDAY = next(DAY_OF_WEEK),
>>>            FRIDAY = next(DAY_OF_WEEK),
>>>            SATURDAY = next(DAY_OF_WEEK),
>>>            SUNDAY = next(DAY_OF_WEEK)
>> </eucode>
{{{
</font>
>>
>> Sorry, I don't understand.
>> Should the function next() be in the library, and the code above is in
>> the user's program? Or should all the code above be in the library?
>
> I'm talking about the enum- and next-function. The code above is just an
> example of how to use it. It's a higher-level alternative for this:
> }}}
<eucode>
> constant MONDAY = 1,
>          TUESDAY = 2,
>          WEDNESDAY = 3,
>          THURSDAY = 4,
>          FRIDAY = 5,
>          SATURDAY = 6,
>          SUNDAY = 7
> </eucode>
{{{

> The advantage of using enum, is that you can later insert extra values
> without having to renumber the existing ones.

I really like to have an enum "mechanism". Just when I first read your
example above, it looked magically to me, and I couldn't imagine how it
works. I saw, that in the meantime you posted the source code for enum()
and next(). Very cool!

Regards,
   Juergen