Re: Multiple return values

Roy Ward wrote:


> That, and multiple values are generally more difficult to deal with
> (both in the specification of the langauage, and implementation). You
> are forced to effectively bundle the return values into some sort of
> structure, or have the whole architecture of the language structured
> to deal with this (adding results to lists).
>
> However, on the plus side, I think that multiple returns are a useful
> concept in functional languages where functions are only allowed to
> return results, as having to set up a structure for each time there
> might be more than one thing to return, and then pull bits out of the
> structure in the calling function, is a little painful.


Of course, you can handle multiple returns using coroutines, and the
means of implementing these in languages like C or C++ is
well-known. (See, e.g., D.E. Knuth, THE ART OF COMPUTER PROGRAMMING,
volume 1, "Fundamental Algorithms", Section 1.4.2, 1975.) And some
languages, such as <A
HREF="http://www.cs.arizona.edu/icon/www/">Icon</A>, provide an
implicit mechanism for coroutines and generators.


--
  Jan Theodore Galkowski,
  developer, statistician,
      Digicomp Research Corporation,
      Ithaca, NY 14850-5720
  jan@digicomp.com
  (also jtgalkowski@worldnet.att.net)
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