[erlang-questions] Why does Erlang have control structures?

[Volodymyr Kyrychenko]

Jayson Barley wrote:
> I am not sure I understand why we have them. For instance I can take the
> following code
> 
> is_greater_than(X, Y) ->
>     if
>         X>Y ->
>             true;
>         true -> % works as an 'else' branch
>             false
>     end.
> 
> And make it
> 
> is_true(true) ->
>     true;
> is_true(false) ->
>     false.
> 
> is_greater_than(X, Y) ->
>     is_true(X>Y).

Because erlang has no call-by-name/need.

What you're proposing exists in Smalltalk.

x ifTrue: [ code ]

In erlang for this to work it should be like:

if_(X>Y, fun() -> do something end, fun() ->
this_is_else_for_something_to_return_if_not end).

For this to work without having to wrap everything into funs there
should be lazy evaluation order in the language.

-- 
Volodymyr Kyrychenko



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