On Wed, May 2, 2018 at 2:48 AM, Hugh Fisher <hugo.fis...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Tuesday, May 1, 2018 at 10:45:30 PM UTC+10, Ian Lance Taylor wrote:
>>
>>
>> A `while` statement would presumably be exactly identical to a `for`
>> statement with a single condition. So adding a `while` statement
>> would not add any power to the language, and would add an additional
>> keyword. All language choices are a cost benefit decision. In this
>> case the benefit is a looping construct that some people will find
>> clearer to read and write, and the cost is a new keyword that
>> everybody needs to learn, and that at this point in the language's
>> evolution will likely break some, even if not much, existing code. I
>> don't think the benefit is worth the cost.
>>
> As for not adding any power, that's why I mentioned if-then-else and switch.
> Switch with boolean cases is the same as if then else. It's not an obscure
> side effect either, the Go Tour cheerfully explains how to use it instead of
> if-then-else if you prefer.
That is not the same thing, though. Yes, if-then-else and switch do
similar things, but they have a different syntax and are idiomatically
used in different ways. You can consider if-then-else as syntactic
sugar for switch, if you like. It's OK for a language to have some
syntactic sugar.
But in this case you seem to be suggesting that we add `while <cond> {
<body> }` as an exact duplicate of the existing language construct
`for <cond> { <body> }`. That's not syntactic sugar. You are
suggesting that `while` just be a synonym for `for`. We don't need
two different keywords that mean exactly the same thing.
> Hmm, think I will have a look at the formal change proposal process...
I encourage proposals but I can tell you upfront that this proposal
will not be accepted.
Ian
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