From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Emanuel Berg Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: if vs. when vs. and: style question Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2015 01:34:16 +0100 Organization: Aioe.org NNTP Server Message-ID: <87r3sd6hkn.fsf@debian.uxu> References: <87sicvwckx.fsf@wmi.amu.edu.pl> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1427243759 13349 80.91.229.3 (25 Mar 2015 00:35:59 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2015 00:35:59 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Mar 25 01:35:55 2015 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1YaZIY-0007iF-Qn for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 25 Mar 2015 01:35:54 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:35288 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1YaZIX-0004xU-Ua for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 24 Mar 2015 20:35:54 -0400 Original-Path: usenet.stanford.edu!news.kjsl.com!feeder.erje.net!us.feeder.erje.net!news2.arglkargh.de!news.mixmin.net!aioe.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 35 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: feB02bRejf23rfBm51Mt7Q.user.speranza.aioe.org Original-X-Complaints-To: abuse@aioe.org User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.4 (gnu/linux) X-Notice: Filtered by postfilter v. 0.8.2 Cancel-Lock: sha1:K0v/EIu/5X/lpAUwEQDUtriy9Zo= Mail-Copies-To: never Original-Xref: usenet.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:211019 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:103300 Archived-At: Thien-Thi Nguyen writes: > Personally, i loathe 1-armed-‘if’ expressions; they > are a blight on the smoothness, equivalent to "umm", > "err" in a formal talk. Ha! Yes, they look so lost and sidetracked and out of focus. But that shouldn't stop anyone from using them. Just like the "umm"s and "err"s in talk, which convey information or give the talker time to formulate the next sentence without being interrupted, the 1-armed bandits serve a purpose. Also, sometimes nil is what you want: (if nil 1) (if nil 1 nil) > When i inherit code (e.g., EDB), i early-on put > effort into killing those abominations. (This has > the predictable side effect of introducing bugs, but > is anyway useful for familiarizing myself w/ the > code Ha again! I just wrote I wouldn't do it, but this is a great point. "May I indent your code?" is perhaps an insult but it can be rephrased as "May I muck around with your code until I understand it?" - at what time, it will be re-indented as the inheritor likes it as a positive side-effect. Learning by doing is doing by learning! If anything can start anew, then everything must continue! -- underground experts united