Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!SOPHIST.UCHICAGO.EDU!goer
From: goer@SOPHIST.UCHICAGO.EDU (Richard Goerwitz)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.icon
Subject: return expressions
Message-ID: <8907100740.AA01903@sophist.uchicago.edu>
Date: 10 Jul 89 07:40:32 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Distribution: inet
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 35

Why doesn't the following program output "go"?

procedure main()
  write(writeit())
end

procedure writeit()
  (return \stopit)
  return "go"
end

I figured that the variable stopit, being null, would
cause the return expression in which it is mentioned
to fail.  This would result only in expression failure,
however, and not in failure of the entire procedure.
I expected that control would then pass to the next
return expression, which would return the string "go"
- the string that would ultimately be written to the
stdout by the write function in the main procedure.

It looks, however, as though the expression

  return \stopit

is the same as 

  fail

at least in this instance, where \stopit fails.
Why is this so?  Why doesn't the program simply
print "go"?

                                        -Richard L. Goerwitz
                                        goer@sophist.uchicago.edu
                                        rutgers!oddjob!gide!sophist!goer