Xref: utzoo comp.lang.c:7875 comp.lang.misc:1156
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From: mrd@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Michael R. DeCorte)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: The D Programming Language
Message-ID: <505@sun.soe.clarkson.edu>
Date: 7 Mar 88 14:13:38 GMT
References: <25284@cca.CCA.COM> <700@l.cc.purdue.edu>
Organization: Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY
Lines: 29
In-reply-to: cik@l.cc.purdue.edu's message of 6 Mar 88 11:13:17 GMT

Posting-Front-End: GNU Emacs 18.47.2 of Thu Dec 10 1987 on sun.mcs.clarkson.edu (berkeley-unix)


In article <700@l.cc.purdue.edu> cik@l.cc.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin) writes:

   No, what is needed is to abandon the mistaken notion that a function
   returns a single result.  From day one, lists should have been allowed
   to the left of the replacement sign--this is not just for functions,
   but even for direct operators.  For example, the infamous frexp function
   in C should not have the syntax

	   y = frexp(x,&n);

   but

	   y,n = frexp(x);


Isetl has something of this sort.  In Isetl [1,2,3] is a tuple and
if you say
[a,b] := [b,a];
you have a swap routine.

[a,b,c] := f();

and f() returns [1,2,3] you will get the assignments that you want.


Views expressed here do not represent Clarkson University or any part of it.
Michael DeCorte // (315)268-3704 // P.O. Box 652, Potsdam, NY 13676
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