<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body><div><div style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Generally function heads are 'better' than cases, particularly if there are a lot of them...<br><br>This email would be easier to answer if there was some code so people could outline options...<br><br>G</div></div><div dir="ltr"><hr><span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold;">From: </span><span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="mailto:nyarly@gmail.com">Judson Lester</a></span><br><span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold;">Sent: </span><span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">02/03/2015 19:20</span><br><span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold;">To: </span><span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="mailto:erlang-questions@erlang.org">Erlang Users' List</a></span><br><span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold;">Subject: </span><span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">[erlang-questions] Design patterns?</span><br><br></div><div dir="ltr">As I'm becoming more comfortable and proficient in Erlang, I'm finding there there are interesting patterns that begin to emerge that I'm not sure I've seen elsewhere. I'm wondering if there's a collection somewhere, maybe c2 style?<div><br></div><div>One example is a complicated data processing: I've started creating a special purpose record and dispatching based on its fields. That includes short-circuiting on errors, constructing syntheses from simpler data, etc. Since I've stumbled onto it, I've been really liking how it can bring the full force of pattern matching to complex processing. I do worry that it's a bit of a smell though. If the processing can be simplified, that might be better, but it's better, imo, than a long ladder of maybe_compute_other_thing style functions.</div><div><br></div><div>And an open question (for me): when to use case/if versus function heads? Roughly, I've been using cases to reformat the returns of a function call, but the decision trips me up every time.</div><div><br></div><div>Judson</div></div>
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