[Lvlug] Re: Lisp (was Re: [Nj-linux-consultants] Musings)

[The Artist Formerly Known as Fingolfin]

On Fri, 11 Jun 2004, Ricardo SIGNES wrote:

> * Faber Fedor <faber at linuxnj.com> [2004-06-11T13:48:29]
> >
> > In the Algol type languages, you can only return one thing, and many
> > times it's a simple data type.  The above example shows how you can
> > return TWO pieces of data from a function.  (Technically, you're passing
> > back one tuple and putting it into two variables). This first showed up
> > in Lisp 50 some years ago.
> >
>
> Don't you go besmirching my beloved Perl!  Perl, which certainly looks
> and sometimes acts Cish, is perfectly capable of returning multiple
> values.
>
>   my @values = function;
>   my ($x, $y) = thingie;
>
> ...and other such wonders.

I'd really like to take up perl. But can you explain or point me to an
explanation of typeglobs??

If Larry Wall lived in a country where the native language actually has
syntax, he would have presumably emulated it as opposed to English. This
would make things substantially easier, if less aesthetically pleasing.

-- 
"...Jews everywhere were showing signs of disturbance, were gathering
together, and giving evidence of great hostility to the Romans, partly
by secret and partly by overt acts."

  -- Cassius Dio, Roman History 69.12.1-14.3