Re: default values of 'false' in data description

[roberto@... (Roberto Ierusalimschy)]

> could anybody elaborate on the downsides of everyting (or most things)
> being an expression?


"Most things" is quite different from "everything". If you count, probably
most things are already expressions in Lua ;)
(+, -, *, /, .., and, or, not, function calls, constructors, etc.)
I will try to answer the "everything" part.


- When all statements become expressions, usually all expressions become
statements too. (Not necessarily a downside, but it is good to keep this
in mind.)

- Possibility of much more cryptic programs.

- Probably lots of syntactical conflicts in Lua (mainly because of
non-mandatory semi-colons).

- Several statements have no natural meaning as expressions. Among them,
return, break, while, and repeat. Actually, I guess that only "if" and
assignment (with all complexities of multiple assignment) have a natural
meaning.

-- Roberto