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000006_icon-group-sender_Fri Aug 16 16:13:23 2002.msg
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Return-Path: <icon-group-sender>
Received: (from root@localhost)
by baskerville.CS.Arizona.EDU (8.11.1/8.11.1) id g7GNDLU22966
for icon-group-addresses; Fri, 16 Aug 2002 16:13:21 -0700 (MST)
Message-Id: <200208162313.g7GNDLU22966@baskerville.CS.Arizona.EDU>
From: Bob Ardler <ardler@argonet.co.uk>
To: icon-group@cs.arizona.edu
Date: Fri, 16 Aug 2002 10:44:22 +0100
Subject: Re: What about "Expressions?"
User-Agent: Pluto/2.04e (RISC-OS/4.03)
Errors-To: icon-group-errors@cs.arizona.edu
Status: RO
Christopher Browne wrote:
> I'm just not sure I'm seeing what is the essential difference
> between "statements" and "expressions" here.
I think he's saying that something in Icon which in normal imperative
languages you'd naturally call a statement and never call an
expression, eg a:=b, has a value - either success or fail, so that
makes it an expression and you can use it like other expressions as a
sub-expression.
Earlier:
>How about Scheme - or for that matter the whole functional camp?
Maybe it's the contrasting look and feel of complete programs:
assembler a string of assignments and jumps, Algol a string of mostly
assignments where you can get by without gotos and the gosubs have
evolved into procedures and functions, LISP where it's one monster
function and assignments feel uncomfortable. If your mother tongue is
one style of language it's harder to learn a different style than a
similar. An appeal of Icon is the way it has its expression-
evaluation character but it's written down like and looks like an
imperative language, which might feel more comfortable for some.