Re: Ada2012 : Expression functions and extended return statements

[Martin Dowie <martin@re.mo.ve.thedowies.com>]

"Randy Brukardt" <randy@rrsoftware.com> wrote:
> "Martin" <martin@thedowies.com> wrote in message 
> news:50ec6d9a-5062-477f-826f-239fd2712a09@f11g2000yql.googlegroups.com...
> On Jan 7, 1:50 am, "Randy Brukardt" <ra...@rrsoftware.com> wrote:
>>>>> In Ada, we favour the reader over the writer, don't we?
>>> 
>>>> Not necessarily, with the advent of expression functions!! ;-)
>>> 
>>> Huh? An expression function is just a shorthand for writing a simple
>>> function; it argubly easier to read because it has less noise. "begin" 
>>> "end"
>>> "return" don't add much information here, and you still can add the
>>> whitespace if you think it helps readability.
>> 
>> http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.ada/browse_frm/thread/4bb12335caa3231a/91a870f32263ab04?>lnk=gst&q=enjoying#91a870f32263ab04
>> 
>> :-O
> 
> The expression functions have nothing to do with the readability issues 
> here, it is intentionally confusing use of case and if expressions (that is, 
> conditional expressions). These aren't the same thing, you know.
> 
> I'd have had more sympathy if you had commented on conditional expressions; 
> I do think you have to use them carefully in order to avoid a mess. (But 
> avoiding them can easily lead to a bigger mess, such as the idioms for 
> writing static expressions that effectively contain conditional 
> expressions.) But that has nothing to do with expression functions.

Agreed. I only had a vague recall of Georg's OP (had to google for it
again). The whole thing horrified me so much I quickly closed the browser
tab!

But, to my eyes at least, mixing of conditional expressions inside a
function expression is particularly ugly.

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