`for`/`else`
bbrk24 opened this issue · comments
From Python. Real-world situation where I want it:
fail .= false
for i .= engine.board.tableau[src.1 as number]# - 1; i >= src.2!; --i
unless engine.moveTableauToFoundation src.1 as number, dest.1 as 'asc' | 'desc', dest.2 as number
fail = true
break
if fail
// May have made partial progress; restore from history
engine = Engine.fromJSON history.-1
else
unHighlight()
updateRender()
vs with for
/else
:
for i .= engine.board.tableau[src.1 as number]# - 1; i >= src.2!; --i
unless engine.moveTableauToFoundation src.1 as number, dest.1 as 'asc' | 'desc', dest.2 as number
// May have made partial progress; restore from history
engine = Engine.fromJSON history.-1
break
else
unHighlight()
updateRender()
We discussed this at some length here: #1083 (and probably Discord before that)
Ha, there's even an ancient partial PR for it: #359
While I agree for..else
is intuitive if you come from Python, Daniel pointed out that it's ambiguous whether else
is the break
case or the non-break
case. Both are common, depending on the use-case. (Does break
mean "I succeeded" or "I failed"?) The idea was to allow both options, via if break
or unless break
(and else
clauses). I feel like things then got a little more complicated with assigning to break
and if break?
and I'm not sure we ended up in the best proposal... but perhaps we can refine it to find the best form.
Some relevant Python references:
I'm a fan of the capability but I'd like to find a better way to name it. The Python for ... else
way seems to be confusing even for Python fans. It would also be nice to have a clause for the break
path as well, similar to how we have try ... catch ... else ...
.