Re: semenatics of if/unless/while statement modifiers

Ara.T.Howard wrote:

> On Tue, 22 Nov 2005, Stefan Kaes wrote:
>
>> I'm afraid I don't understand what you're driving at, although I have 
>> read
>> the Hitchhiker's guide.
>
>
> well that's a start ;-)
>
>> Maybe there's some fine irony hidden here, but I just don't get it.
>
>
> nothing hidden.  just that in your first post you said:
>
>> I found that
>>
>>  if (variable = expr)
>>    ... do something with variable ...
>>  end
>>
>> works, whereas
>>
>>  ... do something with variable ... if (variable = expr)
>>
>> doesn't.
>
>
> i'm simply pointing out that
>
>   variable = expr and do something with variable
>
> is an idiom that's reatively elegent, efficient, intuitive, and 
> understandable
> while side-stepping any ugliness issues having to do with statement 
> modifiers.

ah. this true. nice solution. which I have used in the past too. but 
only in expression contexts, where I'm interested in the value of "do 
something with variable". I think that "do ..." if more clearly 
transports the message that I'm not interested in the value returned by 
"do ...".

-- stefan