On Thu, Dec 2, 2010 at 3:00 PM, Daniel Weinreb dlw@itasoftware.com wrote:
From a purely emotional/historical point of view, I am not used to seeing these (values) forms, and they seem somewhat ugly and verbose. But that's just based on my own experience and should not carry much weight.
I'd like to write in our programming standards either that they should be used, or that they should not be used. I think it's suboptimal for them to be used in some places and not others, since the inconsistency could lead a reader of the code to draw wrong conclusions.
What do people think?
I haven't been in the habit of using them, but now you describe the practice, it seems like a good idea. Maybe I will start. I have the luxury of writing just for my own eyes, though; your situation is more complicated. It certainly seems unfortunate to tell people to take them out when they've gone to the trouble of putting them in.
I agree that a function that returns a value along any path should not use (values) anywhere. This seems consistent with the intent of the practice, which is, after all, clarity.
-- Scott