[erlang-questions] Reading, Learning, Confused

[Thomas Lindgren]

--- On Mon, 7/21/08, Richard A. O'Keefe <ok@REDACTED> wrote:

> Bottom line:
> 	DON'T use 'or' or 'and' ANYWHERE.
> 	DON'T use 'orelse' or 'andalso' in
> guards
> 	but instead stick to ';' and ','.

I normally agree with those recommendations, but with a couple of caveats:

1. You can't nest ';', but you can nest orelse. This can be useful for macros and suchlike.

2. I seem to recall that ';' is implemented by duplicating the clauses, while andalso/orelse is not. If so, andalso/orelse _may_ yield somewhat more compact code.

Both of these properties are basically accidents of history (ie, hacks that have been cast in stone).

Best,
Thomas