Subject: Re: loop & finally
From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.no>
Date: 15 Sep 2002 06:58:58 +0000
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Message-ID: <3241061938707352@naggum.no>

* Software Scavenger
| Both of those solve the problem in my example, but it was intended to be an
| example of a more general problem.

  Both solutions were, I think, intended to solve the more general problem,
  but I now see that your major gripe is not the loss of features of `loop´,
  but consing up a brand new list, and this is a more valid concern in my
  view.  The even more general problem than we solved would thus be a case
  such as

(loop for code from 32 to 95 then from 160 to 255
  do (... something with ISO 8-bit character set conventsions ...))

  which would certainly be more convenient than, say,

(loop for code from 32 to 255
  unless (< 95 code 160) ...)

  So I am sympathetic to your request now that I understand your goal better.

  The `loop´ macro is normally supplied in source form with your Common Lisp
  implementation, so it should be possible to modify it locally, with all the
  drawbacks that has.  I concur that some community effort to define such a
  mechanism would be useful, and it should be addable without serious
  compatibility problems because `then´ is not a valid clause.

-- 
Erik Naggum, Oslo, Norway

Act from reason, and failure makes you rethink and study harder.
Act from faith, and failure makes you blame someone and push harder.