Re: [groovy-dev] optional returns

Martin C. Martin schrieb:
> In Ruby, there's not distinction between statements and expressions. 
> There's a convention that sometimes if, for, etc. are called statements, 
> but the compiler/interpreter make no such distinction.
> 
> So looping constructs are expressions, but they always return nil, since 
> there's really no good return value for them.  It's the same reason that 
> Groovy's "each" doesn't return anything.

I think we changed each to return the object we iterate on, so in 
list.each{println it} we will return the list...

> switch statements (which Ruby calls "case" statements) return a value. 
> Here's the first example of their use in Matz's book on Ruby:
> 
> # Determine US generation name based on birth year
> # Case expression tests ranges with ===
> generation = case birthyear
>              when 1946..1963: "Baby Boomer"
>              when 1964..1976: "Generation X"
>              when 1978..2000: "Generation Y"
>              else nil
>              end

yes, I think we really should keep in mind, that Groovy has statements 
and expressions, while others have probably only expressions. That is a 
huge difference. And starting to let statements return something, means 
in the end to let all statements become expressions.

bye blackdrag