Re: orif

[Sean Conner <sean@...>]

It was thus said that the Great Soni L. once stated:
> (Copypasted from 
> https://gist.github.com/SoniEx2/99882fa8d5a0740339b0#the-orif-idea )
> 
> The orif Idea
> =============
> 
> orif (possible operators: `|if`, `orif`, `or if`, ...) is a construct that 
> allows if statements with **explicit** fall-through.

  It's an interesting idea, but I'm still unsure if I like the name "orif"
or not.  I don't really like it, but I can't come up with a better name.

  But, if it's a switch with a fallthrough case you are missing (and
frankly, I really haven't missed it that much in Lua), what about the
following?

	-- ----------------------------
	-- You need this function
	-- ----------------------------

	function switch(key,case,otherwise)
	  otherwise = otherwise or function() return nil end
	  
	  if not case[key] then
	    return otherwise(case,key)
	  else
	    return case[key](case,key)
	  end
	end

	-- ----------------------------
	-- And now you can do this 
	-- ----------------------------

	flag = false
	i = 2

	switch(i,
	  {
	    function() flag = true end,
	    function(case) case[1]() print(flag) end,
	  },
	  function() print "Unknown!" end
	)

  It's about the same syntatical overhead of a C or Java switch statement,
but it does allow fallthrough (or the effect thereof).  And it can be used
in an expression context (take THAT, C!).

  -spc (Did not expect this to be so easy ... )