[ALLY] Re: new functions?
From: carl:rebol at: 11-Apr-2001 5:57
Yes, I've noticed this pattern too, and agree with you. A
default function would be handy. I've used it before.
The problem with the example from Anton is that the path
would be evaluated, so DEFAULT would not work for the case
that he has given.
I'm going to need to relax the path evalution. It's too
aggressive and is creating problems. We experienced this
when writing REBOL/Link, which uses paths to create the
namespace for the desktop. It was a pain because every
path variable had to be treated with :care.
Lightening up path eval, the result would be that:
>> abc: 'a/b/c
>> type? abc
== path
Currently, the path would be evaluted, and that result
would be returned. So literal references to paths are
aggressively evaluated. That must change.
I'm *VERY* serious about making this change to REBOL's
core. It will not break most code... but could break
a few scripts here and there where the coder noticed
this aggressive evaluation and used it.
Let me know what you think...
-Carl