Comment by stkdump
2 hours ago
The modern universal keywords if, else, for and while are good because they are fairly short and thus quick to type.
2 hours ago
The modern universal keywords if, else, for and while are good because they are fairly short and thus quick to type.
"loop" can all be typed with one finger, as the letters are all together on the qwerty keyboard, and the "o" repeats itself.
"while" on qwerty is sort of a chore.
Usually for speed and avoiding strain you want to incorporate as many fingers as possible. In fact it's a common mark against dvorak online that "ls -l" is all typed with the right pinky (not an issue in the workman layout luckily).
Using more fingers allows for faster typing.
w TAB in a properly configured emacs
I'm writing some Crystal (which has Ruby-like syntax) and I'd add `unless` to the list. I like it!
`unless` came from Perl, Ruby adopted it, and so of course did Crystal.
"Unless" feels like adding come-from (next to goto) to a language. A statement/flow should not change its meaning after being declared/written IMHO.
edit: My criticism is for the suffix version to be clear. Unless / else is actually cool.
`destroy_world() if $angry;` is Perl syntax. And Python has `destroy_word() if angry else live_long_and_prosper()`.
(But it's not remotely like come-from.)
P.S. in re the other response, "unless" is "if not". "until" is "while not".
wdym? "unless" is literally "while not", no come-from mechanics
Yes, otherwise is more natural but less terse.
We often write "otherwise" in mathematics:
https://arxiv.org/html/1501.05438v2#:~:text=otherwise,-%2C
https://arxiv.org/html/1302.5008v3#:~:text=otherwise
https://arxiv.org/html/1501.05438v2#:~:text=otherwise,-%2E
In fact, I think that's the most common alternative, not "else".
"or else" works too but that's still three extra characters