Groups > comp.lang.java.programmer > #22050

Re: refactoring problem

From	Joshua Cranmer <Pidgeot18@verizon.invalid>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.java.programmer
Subject	Re: refactoring problem
Date	2013-02-03 11:54 -0600
Organization	A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID	<kem88s$72o$1@dont-email.me> (permalink)
References	<7fssg8dakvofmv6pk3sfvp5jmaku55vgmm@4ax.com>

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On 2/3/2013 8:30 AM, Roedy Green wrote:
> I think, why can methods have multiple inputs, but only one output? I
> have been thinking that for about 50 years, and it ,seems unlikely to
> change soon.

The short answer is that grammar makes N-ary arguments easy to express 
but N-ary returns difficult. Function calls evaluate to a value, so to 
implement N-ary returns, you have to effectively make tuples first-class 
values and treat multiple return values as tuple unpacking. In 
explicitly-typed languages like Java, this would make doing things like 
initializing multiple values of different types from a multiple-returned 
value syntactically annoying.

Note that this issue doesn't exist in function calls, where the syntax 
of function calls makes it very easy to expand to more arguments by 
using an un(der)used "operator", i.e., the comma operator.

-- 
Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not 
tried it. -- Donald E. Knuth

Thread

refactoring problem Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2013-02-03 06:30 -0800
  Re: refactoring problem Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2013-02-03 16:23 +0000
  Re: refactoring problem Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom2@eastlink.ca> - 2013-02-03 12:27 -0400
    Re: refactoring problem Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2013-02-03 12:35 -0800
      Re: refactoring problem Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2013-02-03 15:37 -0500
    Re: refactoring problem Leif Roar Moldskred <leifm@dimnakorr.com> - 2013-02-03 15:21 -0600
      Re: refactoring problem Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom2@eastlink.ca> - 2013-02-03 17:38 -0400
      Re: refactoring problem Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2013-02-03 16:46 -0500
    Re: refactoring problem Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2013-02-03 14:36 -0800
  Re: refactoring problem Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2013-02-03 11:34 -0500
  Re: refactoring problem Joshua Cranmer <Pidgeot18@verizon.invalid> - 2013-02-03 11:54 -0600
    Re: refactoring problem Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2013-02-03 13:13 -0500
      Re: refactoring problem Knute Johnson <nospam@knutejohnson.com> - 2013-02-03 10:20 -0800
        Re: refactoring problem Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2013-02-03 13:32 -0500
          Re: refactoring problem Peter Duniho <NpOeStPeAdM@NnOwSlPiAnMk.com> - 2013-02-03 10:50 -0800
            Re: refactoring problem Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> - 2013-02-03 21:38 +0100
            Re: refactoring problem "Chris Uppal" <chris.uppal@metagnostic.REMOVE-THIS.org> - 2013-02-04 08:11 +0000
              Re: refactoring problem Peter Duniho <NpOeStPeAdM@NnOwSlPiAnMk.com> - 2013-02-04 03:56 -0800
      Re: refactoring problem Silvio <silvio@internet.com> - 2013-02-04 13:21 +0100
        Re: refactoring problem Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2013-02-04 12:35 -0800
          Re: refactoring problem Silvio <silvio@internet.com> - 2013-02-04 22:15 +0100
            Re: refactoring problem Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2013-02-04 13:49 -0800
              Re: refactoring problem Silvio <silvio@internet.com> - 2013-02-04 23:51 +0100
            Re: refactoring problem Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2013-02-04 13:53 -0800
              Re: refactoring problem Silvio <silvio@internet.com> - 2013-02-04 23:48 +0100
                Re: refactoring problem Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2013-02-04 17:08 -0800
                Re: refactoring problem Silvio <silvio@internet.com> - 2013-02-05 10:07 +0100
                Re: refactoring problem Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2013-02-05 13:13 -0800
                Re: refactoring problem Jim Gibson <jimsgibson@gmail.com> - 2013-02-05 13:20 -0800
                Re: refactoring problem Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2013-02-05 13:31 -0800
                Re: refactoring problem Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2013-02-05 21:42 -0500
            Re: refactoring problem Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2013-02-04 18:33 -0500
          Re: refactoring problem Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2013-02-04 18:32 -0500
            Re: refactoring problem Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2013-02-05 01:50 +0000
          Re: refactoring problem Joshua Cranmer <Pidgeot18@verizon.invalid> - 2013-02-05 10:04 -0600
            Re: refactoring problem Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2013-02-05 10:38 -0800
              Re: refactoring problem Joshua Cranmer <Pidgeot18@verizon.invalid> - 2013-02-05 13:53 -0600
            Re: refactoring problem Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2013-02-05 21:43 -0500
              Re: refactoring problem markspace <markspace@nospam.nospam> - 2013-02-05 19:15 -0800
                Re: refactoring problem Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2013-02-08 23:58 -0500
  Re: refactoring problem Joerg Meier <joergmmeier@arcor.de> - 2013-02-05 11:09 +0100

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