In article <····@skye.ed.ac.uk> you write:
>In article <·············@wilbur.coyote.trw.com> ···@wiley.UUCP (Jay Nelson) writes:
>>I don't understand the comment about COND. I use WHEN and UNLESS for
>>single case instances, IF when I want two outcomes, and COND when a
>>sequential set of conditions must be evaluated that doesn't fit the CASE
>>construct.
>
>That's more or less what I do too.
>
>But some people claim that COND is not used except in "old fashioned"
>code. The suggestion seems to be to use nested IFs instead. Even
>though COND is just about the hardest thing in Lisp to read, I don't
>think nested IFs are always a good alternative. On the other hand,
>if established practractice really is moving away from COND, I'd like
>to know that. Contrariwise, if the textbooks that claim COND is
>obsolete are wrong, I'd like to know _that_.
It is what I do. I find COND with more than two conditions to be much simpler to
understand than using nested IF's. It is like a Multiplexer circuit with only one
allowed input. The code indents cleanly, and looks simpler. What is the reason for
saying that COND is obsolete? (COND-EVERY is occasionally useful as well.)
Steve
From: Jeff Dalton
Subject: Re: Terminology and style (was Re: Question about INTERN)
Date:
Message-ID: <4150@skye.ed.ac.uk>
In article <······················@csc.ti.com> ·····@vdle21 (Steve Lusky) writes:
>>But some people claim that COND is not used except in "old fashioned"
>>code. The suggestion seems to be to use nested IFs instead. Even
>>though COND is just about the hardest thing in Lisp to read, I don't
>>think nested IFs are always a good alternative. On the other hand,
>>if established practractice really is moving away from COND, I'd like
>>to know that. Contrariwise, if the textbooks that claim COND is
>>obsolete are wrong, I'd like to know _that_.
>What is the reason for saying that COND is obsolete?
Maybe I should look up one of those claims that I say some people
make. I think all they're saying is that modern (so to speak) Lisp
programmers have moved away from it. I don't agree with then, though.