Date: Mon, 05 Apr 2010 07:07:52 -0700 From: merlyn@stonehenge.com (Randal L. Schwartz) To: Matthew Seaman <m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk> Cc: Alejandro Imass <ait@p2ee.org>, Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de>, Chad Perrin <perrin@apotheon.com>, FreeBSD Mailing List <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: perl qstn... Message-ID: <867homm1qf.fsf@red.stonehenge.com> In-Reply-To: <4BB9A5ED.3040309@infracaninophile.co.uk> (Matthew Seaman's message of "Mon, 05 Apr 2010 09:57:17 %2B0100") References: <20100403210610.GA4135@thought.org> <4BB8108A.9080104@FreeBSD.org> <1270371713.5861.98.camel@tao.thought.org> <86aatjnsts.fsf@red.stonehenge.com> <861vevnsow.fsf@red.stonehenge.com> <j2ya14066a01004040945z39191770k2f025752317fb14a@mail.gmail.com> <20100404163353.GA15198@guilt.hydra> <20100404201442.b456044e.freebsd@edvax.de> <o2oa14066a01004041148zd4ef8167q32b04d58daec8f9f@mail.gmail.com> <4BB9A5ED.3040309@infracaninophile.co.uk>
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>>>>> "Matthew" == Matthew Seaman <m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk> writes:
Matthew> As far as I know, perl and its descendant ruby are the only
Matthew> programming languages that let you put the condition test after
Matthew> the action, despite this being exceeding familiar in human
Matthew> languages.
Except, we old-timers remember that Larry Wall directly lifted this from
RSTS-E BASIC-PLUS, which he had used at Pacific University as a student.
Having hacked BASIC-PLUS myself around the same time, I recognized it
instantly.
BASIC-PLUS went further though, allowing them to be nested. So you'd
end up with monstrosities like:
PRINT a
IF a % 3 = 2
FOR a = b TO b+7
FOR b = 0 TO 90 STEP 10;
Thankfully, Larry limited Perl's statement modifiers to precisely one
level. :)
Just another old geezer,
--
Randal L. Schwartz - Stonehenge Consulting Services, Inc. - +1 503 777 0095
<merlyn@stonehenge.com> <URL:http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/>;
Smalltalk/Perl/Unix consulting, Technical writing, Comedy, etc. etc.
See http://methodsandmessages.vox.com/ for Smalltalk and Seaside discussion
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