[ZPT] Mini proposal: repeat-define and repeat-condition

[Jamie Heilman]

Chris Withers wrote:
> Richard Jones wrote:
> >
> >-1 breaking backwards compatibility, even in a "major" release, just 
> >because the current scheme feels wrong and the alternative feels right
> 
> Hmmm, the alternative would make life a lot simpler for a lot of people :-S

I'm not convinced it would.  Consider tal:condition alone for a
moment.  If repeat has precedence, condition changes meaning from
"iterate over these items or don't" to "filter these items using this
condition."  So instead of breaking backwards compatibility, why don't
you just use python:filter(), the results will be the same.  (I feel
TAL is best left as simple as possible, but if the operations must be
enriched I'd consider the name "filter" or "grep" instead of
repeat-condition.)

As for tal:define, while I can appreciate the convenience, changing the
order this late in the game really feels wrong.

-- 
Jamie Heilman                   http://audible.transient.net/~jamie/
"We must be born with an intuition of mortality.  Before we know the words
 for it, before we know there are words, out we come bloodied and squalling
 with the knowledge that for all the compasses in the world, there's only
 one direction, and time is its only measure."		-Rosencrantz