Re: [bug?] = doesn't work properly

[Martin <eden_martin_fuhrspam@...>]

On 04/30/2017 09:04 AM, Soni L. wrote:
> The fix is to allow an = to be used as `return` in the parser, if it's
> the first statement in a function. This'll be a huge improvement for Lua
> data files:
> 
> = {
>   nick = "Soni|Bot",
>   network = "irc.freenode.net",
>   port = 6667,
> }
> 
> while also fixing the bug in the interpreter.
> 
> Side effects include `local function swap(a,b) = b,a end`,
> `s:gsub("[A-Z]", function(k) = tostring(k:byte()) end)`, etc. But I
> think those are nice.

Code will become more obscure from this change. I prefer stable habits
like "use `return` anytime you wish to leave current scope and return
values". But this may be done, yes.

--

I'd wish another feature: treat statements as expressions.

(Because sometimes I'm tired from building logic bottom-up when I see a
way to describe it top-down.)

Then some code like this will become valid:

  local result =
    do
      local s = 'some text'
      return s
    end .. '!'

  print(result)

Today you can implement this behavior as anonymous function call:

  local result =
    (
      function()
        local s = 'some text'
        return s
      end
    )() .. '!'

  print(result)

which looks less nice.

--

> $ lua
> Lua 5.3.4  Copyright (C) 1994-2017 Lua.org, PUC-Rio
>> =1
> 1
>>  =1
> stdin:1: unexpected symbol near '='

It's strange for me why "=1" is valid in interpreter. I consider this as
a glitch and tend to ignore this feature.

-- Martin