In article <sfwg124x9d1.fsf@world.std.com>,
Kent M Pitman  <pitman@world.std.com> wrote:
+---------------
| Tim Bradshaw <tfb@tfeb.org> writes:
| > Also I have no idea if supplied-p parameters are supported in other
| > Lisps, though that may not be a big issue.
| 
| Well, in scheme for example:
|  (define (foo arg1 . maybe-arg2)
|     (if (cdr maybe-arg2) ;supplied-p
|         ... (car maybe-arg2) ... ;i.e., definitely-arg2
| 	))
+---------------

I think you probably meant something like this:

   (define (foo arg1 . maybe-arg2)
      (if (not (null? maybe-arg2)) ;supplied-p
          ... (car maybe-arg2) ... ;i.e., definitely-arg2
  	))

+---------------
| It can often be glossed, in other words,.  But it's ugly.
+---------------

Indeed. I often find myself writing destructuring macros to help out.

By the way, some Schemes have a construct called "case-lambda":

	<URL:http://www.cs.rice.edu/CS/PLT/packages/doc/mzscheme/node22.htm>
	The case-lambda form creates a procedure that dispatches to a
	particular body of expressions based on the number of arguments
	it receives. This provides a mechanism for creating variable-arity
	procedures with more control and efficiency than using a ``rest arg''.

So using case-lambda, the above example [extended slightly] becomes:

	(define foo
	  (case-lambda
	    ((arg1) ...what to do if only one arg given...)
	    ((arg1 arg2) ...what to do if exactly two args...)
	    ((arg1 arg2 arg3 . the-remainder) ...three or more...)))


-Rob

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Rob Warnock, 8L-855		rpw3@sgi.com
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