[erlang-questions] Getting rid of some repetition.

[Colin Z]

Say I have a process loop with a receive block that receives a bunch of
different messages...typical scenario:

loop(A, B, C)->
receive
 {msg1, A1}->
  loop(A1, B, C)
;
{msg2, B1}->
  loop(A, B1, C)
;
{msg3, C1}->
  loop(A, B, C1)
;
{msg4, A2, C2}->
  loop(A2, B, C2)
end
.


Is there a shorthand way to avoid having to repeat the calls to loop so many
times? I realize Erlang is functional and this is how you have to maintain
state, but it gets tedious typing all that out. It's especially burdensome
and error prone if I go back later and add or remove a parameter to loop,
because then I have to change it everywhere else, too.

It'd be cool if I could say something like loop(_,_,C1) and have the
compiler understand that I want to call loop with whatever the values of A
and B currently are.

Or even better, some syntax like loop(A:A2,C:C2) and it would know I wanted
to preserve B, but replace A and C with A2 and C2.

Is there any reason why something like this wouldn't be possible?
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