Re: Pronouns in programming language?

John Fremlin <vii@altern.org> writes:


>Has any programming language/compiler implemented pronoun like
>constructs? For example:


> if variable_with_long_name == '2 ,
> { do this; }
> if it == '3 , # equivalent to: variable_with_long_name == '3
> { do that }




In the interactive system of Standard ML, "it" refers to the value of
the expression evaluated at the most recent prompt. SO, you can write
something like


- 2*(3+4);
> val it = 14 : int
- it*7;
> val it = 98 : int
-


where the "-" is the prompt and the result is shown after the ">".
Basically, an expression at the prompt is evaluated like the
declaration "val it = <expression>". Subsequent expressions creates
new instances of the name "it" and binds these to the new values.


Torben Mogensen (torbenm@diku.dk)

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