[r6rs-discuss] [Formal] Remove the (r6rs when-unless) library

From: Abdulaziz Ghuloum <aghuloum>
Date: Sun Mar 11 23:22:45 2007

On Mar 11, 2007, at 10:43 AM, Michael Sperber wrote:
> This is mainly an attempt to stimulate discussion: Given that `when'
> and `unless' offer little advantage over just using `if',

I agree with Kent that this is not "given" at all. Often when I read
a piece of code, my eyes glance for "clues" about what the code does
without having to think really hard about what the code exactly does.

When I see an occurrence of "when" or "unless" in some code, two
signals immediately fire:
1. look for side effects in the body of the form, and
2. don't look for a return value; there isn't one.

When I see an "if" expression, I immediately think "what are the two
possible values?".

So, for me personally, the usage of "if" as you suggest fires the
wrong neurons and forces me to turn these neurons off, fire the other
set of neurons manually, then re-read the piece of code. Of course,
the ability to fast-forward when reading code is extremely important
to me.

But I agree that "when" and "unless" should not be in their own
library, but instead be merged into the r6rs base library.

Aziz,,,
Received on Sun Mar 11 2007 - 23:22:10 UTC