programming, using op(), was ..RE: Bugfix for GosperSum? (was: cannot load Zeilberger)

Arguing programming language syntax is somewhat akin to arguing about
religions, however there are some issues that can be raised.



The syntax previously proposed allows
Case (expr
  [testvalue, dothis, dothat, returnthis],
  [testvalue2, ....]
...)
Which is why lisp uses it.   Just a list of expr,test,dothis,test,dothat, is
not so handy.
You could simulate it by  case(expr,test,block([]....), test, .... I
suppose. Just wordier.



> >
> > There are other situations in Maxima ('depends', for example) where the
> > meaning of an argument depends on its position in the arguments list.


> 
> Yes, and that's confusing, isn't it, because in a long list ..., a, b, c,
> ...
> that might be interpreted as (a, b), (c, ...) or as (..., a), (b, c).
> Various declaration functions have this misfeature; that's a bad
> precedent I don't want to propagate.

I think I agree here.

RJF