OpenEuphoria

Naming of "continue"

• Posted by Jeremy Cowgar <jeremy at cowg?r.?om> May 11, 2008
• 653 views

We can name it whatever. I do not really care, what I like is the functionality


The reason I choose continue was due to familiarity. Most languages that have
such a keyword call it continue. I can see where either would work... i.e.

continue -- at top of loop
next -- next loop iteration

But, taken literally, what do either really mean?

continue -- execution?
continue -- with next token?

or

next -- token?
next -- statement?

So, after thinking about it, I felt neither was a perfect name, but continue had
on it's side name recognition. Neither was self evident but at least most people
know what continue is. Other languages that have a next keyword are usually part
of the for loop:

for 1 to 10 do
  print "Hello"
next

They are not put mid block, but are the same thing as our end for or end do.

Oh, I also did some research and I found several uses of function name next()
for iterating through lists, tokens, etc...

Other possible names I came up with are:

repeat, again, hm... tried to come up with others with no luck.

Out of: continue, next, repeat, again ... I think repeat or again makes much
more sense than continue or next. Here are definitions:

  continue
       v 1: continue a certain state, condition, or activity; "Keep on
            working!"; "We continued to work into the night"; "Keep
            smiling"; "We went on working until well past midnight"
       4: move ahead; travel onward in time or space; "We proceeded
          towards Washington"; "She continued in the direction of
          the hills"; "We are moving ahead in time now"

  next
       adj 1: nearest in space or position; immediately adjoining without
              intervening space; "had adjacent rooms"; "in the next
              room"; "the person sitting next to me"; "our rooms
              were side by side" [syn: adjacent, side by side(p)]
       3: immediately following in time or order; "the following day";
          "next in line"; "the next president"; "the next item on
          the list" [syn: following]

  repeat
       n : an event that repeats; "the events today were a repeat of
           yesterday's" [syn: repetition]
       v 1: to say, state, or perform again; "She kept reiterating her
            request" [syn: reiterate, ingeminate, iterate, restate,
             retell]
       2: make or do or perform again; "He could never replicate his
          brilliant performance of the magic trick" [syn: duplicate,
           reduplicate, double, replicate]
       3: happen or occur again; "This is a recurring story" [syn: recur]
       4: to say again or imitate; "followers echoing the cries of
          their leaders" [syn: echo]
       5: do over; "They would like to take it over again" [syn: take
          over]
       6: repeat an earlier theme of a composition [syn: reprise, reprize,
           recapitulate]

  again
       adv : anew; "she tried again"; "they rehearsed the scene again"
             [syn: once again, once more, over again]
1.	once more; another time; anew; in addition: Will you spell your name again,
please?
2.	in an additional case or instance; moreover; besides; furthermore.
3.	on the other hand: It might happen, and again it might not.
4.	back; in return; in reply: to answer again.
5.	to the same place or person: to return again.

Notice a few: next #1, #4 (there were other definitions that did not apply at
all to us, same as other words, so I did not include them). repeat #2, #3, #5.
Again did not have a good definition on dict.org, so I got it from
dictionary.com... again #1, #4

So, if we were to change from continue and loose the familiarity of it, I would
vote for repeat or again, not next. next has all the same problems as continue,
plus it is used in other languages as a keyword that does something different,
and it's a common function name.

Thoughts?

--
Jeremy Cowgar
http://jeremy.cowgar.com