Subject: Re: Little doubts with "if" clause
From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net>
Date: Sun, 02 Dec 2001 20:13:16 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Message-ID: <3216312794772355@naggum.net>

* Coby Beck
| You've never been in my kill-file!

  My mistake -- I thought had said you did, once.  My apologies.

| I guess it was mostly the passive tense "it is advised" phrase that made
| me want to point out that is hardly a universal axiom of IF that more
| than on form in a branch means it should be a COND.

  I hope style is not considered "axiomatic" anywhere.  

* Erik Naggum
> The lack of an implicit progn in the if form is a hint that cond, which
> has an implicit progn for each branch, would be more appropriately used
> for bodies with side-effects and if for expressions.

| This is a strong argument, though one more from tradition than other
| stylistic concerns.

| I still like the strong visual signal an IF form gives you that there are
| two and only two branches.

  That seems like a reasonable rationale, but it appears to me (i.e.,
  pretty weak certainy) that most of the uses have one branch with a single
  form, like return or error, and the other a larger body of something.  I
  tend to use one-branch conditionals and know that that branch terminates
  the function or asks the operator to fix an error -- sometimes one can
  turn an error into a continuable error, then the function should not
  simply error out

| Variety is the spice of life, I like very much that lisp provides so many
| ways to express your code.

  I second that.

///
-- 
  The past is not more important than the future, despite what your culture
  has taught you.  Your future observations, conclusions, and beliefs are
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