[REBOL] local vars in functions
From: rishioswal:y:ahoo at: 23-Apr-2002 20:08
One part of REBOL that can feel odd is when i have to
define local variables of a function in the first
block of the function. I find it a bit annoying to
have to add new variables to the list for every little
local variable I use. In addition, I feel it clutters
up the first block and increases function size. In
addition, the way it is currently done could make it
easy to create hard to detect bugs.
What I would like to see is another shortcut to
creating local variables in any context (function,
innerfunction, loop). The obvious way I see of doing
this is as follows:
myfunc: func [][
localvar:: $25
myinnerfunc: func [][
innerlocal:: $10
print localvar ; prints $25
]
print innerlocal; error!
]
print localvar ; error!
using the "::" for local var will make it more
convienient to create local vars (which i use all the
time over global vars). In addition, it will help
prevent some errors of accidental global var creation
because it is now easy to spot a local var. Best of
all, this type of shortcut would not break anything in
rebol. You could even use this in a loop:
for count 1 10 1 [
localvar:: "hello"
]
Using the "::" shortcut in a global context would be
the same as using a ":".
The disadvantage I see is that it adds another thing
to the language.. But consider that now we could stop
using the /local keyword, reduce bugs, and use it
consistently everywhere, overall it can simplify
things.
Anybody have other reasons as to why it was not done
this way??
Perhaps there is a performance issue??
rishi
