Groups > comp.lang.java.programmer > #5247

Re: Call by Result

From	Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.java.programmer
Subject	Re: Call by Result
References	<nkc3v61jg7i21l7n482ce561dq9fdogg3m@4ax.com> <slrniv3i5o.phi.avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> <95e4uuF3cvU1@mid.individual.net> <G8nIp.1578$SG4.1543@newsfe03.iad> <jfo4v6h8henggi9kmrba772e98qmsqe77k@4ax.com>
Message-ID	<oG6Jp.3400$xh5.1768@newsfe02.iad> (permalink)
Organization	Public Usenet Newsgroup Access
Date	2011-06-12 14:27 -0300

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On 11-06-10 03:31 PM, Gene Wirchenko wrote:
> On Fri, 10 Jun 2011 08:23:17 -0300, Arved Sandstrom
> <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> wrote:
> 
> [snip]
> 
>> This is the kind of thing where "purists" will get a bit bloody. Not to
> 
>      Let them scream.  I have other comments elsethread.  In short, if
> your favourite way of doing things causes me a bunch of extra work to
> use, I am liable to not use it.
> 
>> teach you or any other respondent here how to suck eggs, but I'll throw
>> in, for general edification of a wider audience, the information that
>> we've got this problem both because Java has "pass object reference by
>> value" and Strings are immutable. Hence the OP's question.
> 
>      Nope.  I simply want to call by result.

I know what you said you wanted, Gene. The above chunk of mine that you
quoted provides some context, for the use of any readers who might not
be completely up to speed Java-wise, as to what *any* approach would
have to contend with.

Read a bit more carefully. Thanks.

>> Given that, Andreas' #2 is legit (I agree, Nigel, with your concerns
>> regarding #1 and #3), and so are the two suggestions you and Patricia
>> have put forth.
> 
>      I based my answer on #2.
> 
>> I'll accept that returning an object containing both the possible
>> modified String and a boolean status is OK. I don't much like it,
>> however, for two reasons. It's still the use of a return value for
>> operation status, and although that's defensible, there's nothing OO
>> about it - it's pure imperative programming. And were we to still pursue
>> that approach, unfortunately Java has no elegant means for supporting
>> it, unlike Haskell Maybe or Scala Option.
> 
>      Well, imperative programming does exist, and I use it.

So does everyone. A large percentage, maybe even the majority, of Java
code is imperative.

>> The failure of Java to cleanly support the previous approach pretty much
>> argues, IMHO, for exceptions. And this is, again IMHO, quite pure. It's
> 
>      Nope.  Too complicated.

String resultString = null;
try {
    resultString = GetString(stringToBeParsed);
} catch (Exception e) {
    // too bad
}

is more complicated than what you asked for? Go figure.

>> basically my business to define what I consider to be failures and
>> errors. Myself I see absolutely no problem in arguing that a failure to
>> work (parse) is a failure. :-) It's certainly an error in the input to
>> be parsed. In any case the OP would hardly be asking for an operation
>> success status if it wasn't possible for the method to fail.
>>
>> Another argument for exceptions here is the OP's
>>
>> if (!DidItWork)
>>    // too bad
>>
>> bit. I have my doubts as to whether the OP's intended error processing
>> consists just of a NOOP and a comment. Assuming that it doesn't, and one
>> actually wants to do something productive in the error-handling,
>> exceptions are the best way to do it.
> 
>      Get real!  It is common in examples to have a comment indicating
> what would be done when said code is not particularly relevant to the
> example.

What _are_ you talking about, Gene? Don't be so defensive and prickly.

I know that that commented out code isn't particularly relevant to the
example...or more precisely, _you_ don't think it is. That doesn't mean
I can't make a point about the code that would possibly be there, and
how that fits in with exceptions.

Here's a clue, Gene. For someone who supposedly has been on Usenet
forever, here's something that you obviously never picked up: when
people answer other peoples' posts, they are often not just replying to
the one person, they may be speaking to a wider audience, and phrasing
things accordingly.

AHS

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Thread

Call by Result Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-06-09 23:03 -0700
  Re: Call by Result Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-06-10 07:33 +0000
    Re: Call by Result Nigel Wade <nmw-news@ion.le.ac.uk> - 2011-06-10 10:03 +0100
      Re: Call by Result Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-06-10 09:47 +0000
      Re: Call by Result Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2011-06-10 08:23 -0300
        Re: Call by Result Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-06-10 13:12 +0000
          Re: Call by Result Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2011-06-10 15:44 -0300
            Re: Call by Result Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-06-12 16:29 +0000
              Re: Call by Result Silvio <silvio@moc.com> - 2011-06-12 23:00 +0200
                Re: Call by Result Silvio <silvio@moc.com> - 2011-06-12 23:06 +0200
                Re: Call by Result Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-06-14 10:52 +0000
                Re: Call by Result Silvio <silvio@moc.com> - 2011-06-14 17:13 +0200
                Re: Call by Result Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2011-06-14 17:58 -0300
                Re: Call by Result Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-06-14 21:18 +0000
                Re: Call by Result Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2011-06-14 20:14 -0300
                Re: Call by Result Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2011-06-15 07:13 -0300
                Re: Call by Result Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-06-15 12:50 +0000
                Re: Call by Result Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2011-06-15 18:52 -0300
                Re: Call by Result lewbloch <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-06-15 07:06 -0700
                Re: Call by Result Michael Wojcik <mwojcik@newsguy.com> - 2011-06-15 21:33 -0400
                Re: Call by Result Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-06-16 11:03 +0000
                Re: Call by Result "H.J. Sander Bruggink" <sander.bruggink@uni-due.de> - 2011-06-16 13:09 +0200
                Re: Call by Result Lewis Bloch <lewisbloch@google.com> - 2011-06-16 06:59 -0700
                Re: Call by Result "John B. Matthews" <nospam@nospam.invalid> - 2011-06-16 23:14 -0400
        Re: Call by Result Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-06-10 11:31 -0700
          Re: Call by Result Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2011-06-12 14:27 -0300
      Re: Call by Result Peter Duniho <NpOeStPeAdM@NnOwSlPiAnMk.com> - 2011-06-10 07:20 -0700
      Re: Call by Result Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-06-10 09:30 -0700
        Re: Call by Result Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-06-10 11:44 -0700
    Re: Call by Result Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-06-10 11:26 -0700
      Re: Call by Result Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-06-11 15:07 +0000
        Re: Call by Result Abu Yahya <abu_yahya@invalid.com> - 2011-06-11 23:00 +0530
          Re: Call by Result Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2011-06-11 19:36 +0000
            Re: Call by Result Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-06-11 21:06 +0000
              Re: Call by Result Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2011-06-12 10:53 +0000
                Re: Call by Result Peter Duniho <NpOeStPeAdM@NnOwSlPiAnMk.com> - 2011-06-12 09:28 -0700
                Re: Call by Result Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2011-06-12 17:48 +0000
                Re: Call by Result Peter Duniho <NpOeStPeAdM@NnOwSlPiAnMk.com> - 2011-06-12 13:19 -0700
            Re: Call by Result Peter Duniho <NpOeStPeAdM@NnOwSlPiAnMk.com> - 2011-06-11 15:39 -0700
              Re: Call by Result Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-06-12 11:07 +0000
                Re: Call by Result markspace <-@.> - 2011-06-12 07:02 -0700
                Re: Call by Result Peter Duniho <NpOeStPeAdM@NnOwSlPiAnMk.com> - 2011-06-12 09:39 -0700
                Re: Call by Result Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-06-14 10:29 +0000
                Re: Call by Result Peter Duniho <NpOeStPeAdM@NnOwSlPiAnMk.com> - 2011-06-14 09:14 -0700
                Re: Call by Result markspace <-@.> - 2011-06-14 09:21 -0700
                Re: Call by Result Peter Duniho <NpOeStPeAdM@NnOwSlPiAnMk.com> - 2011-06-14 09:53 -0700
                Re: Call by Result Peter Duniho <NpOeStPeAdM@NnOwSlPiAnMk.com> - 2011-06-14 09:57 -0700
            Re: Call by Result Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-06-12 21:44 -0700
        Re: Call by Result Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-06-12 21:40 -0700
  Re: Call by Result Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-06-10 01:30 -0700
    Re: Call by Result Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-06-10 11:45 -0700
  Re: Call by Result Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2011-06-10 07:50 -0400
  Re: Call by Result Silvio <silvio@moc.com> - 2011-06-10 15:35 +0200
  Re: Call by Result Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-06-10 13:56 +0000
  Re: Call by Result Peter Duniho <NpOeStPeAdM@NnOwSlPiAnMk.com> - 2011-06-10 07:22 -0700
    Re: Call by Result Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-06-10 11:56 -0700
    Re: Call by Result Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-06-10 11:57 -0700
      Re: Call by Result Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-06-10 13:50 -0700
        Re: Call by Result Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-06-12 21:53 -0700
          Re: Call by Result Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2011-06-13 07:20 -0300
            Re: Call by Result Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-06-13 08:08 -0700
      Re: Call by Result Wojtek <nowhere@a.com> - 2011-06-11 16:35 -0700
        Re: Call by Result Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2011-06-12 11:05 +0000
        Re: Call by Result Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-06-12 21:56 -0700
          Re: Call by Result Wojtek <nowhere@a.com> - 2011-06-14 00:40 -0700
    Re: Call by Result Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-06-11 21:18 +0000
  Re: Call by Result markspace <-@.> - 2011-06-10 08:43 -0700
  Re: Call by Result RedGrittyBrick <RedGrittyBrick@spamweary.invalid> - 2011-06-10 17:01 +0100
    Re: Call by Result Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2011-06-10 16:55 +0000
    Re: Call by Result Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-06-10 11:59 -0700
      Re: Call by Result Wojtek <nowhere@a.com> - 2011-06-11 16:24 -0700
        Re: Call by Result Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-06-12 21:59 -0700
          Re: Call by Result Paul Cager <paul.cager@googlemail.com> - 2011-06-13 07:53 -0700
          Re: Call by Result Wojtek <nowhere@a.com> - 2011-06-14 00:43 -0700
  Re: Call by Result Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-06-10 11:55 -0700
  Re: Call by Result Steven Simpson <ss@domain.invalid> - 2011-06-11 09:09 +0100
  Re: Call by Result Cholo Lennon <chololennon@hotmail.com> - 2011-06-16 11:30 -0300
    Re: Call by Result Paul Cager <paul.cager@googlemail.com> - 2011-06-17 02:38 -0700
      Re: Call by Result Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-06-17 12:06 -0700
    Re: Call by Result lewbloch <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-06-17 06:40 -0700
      Re: Call by Result Cholo Lennon <chololennon@hotmail.com> - 2011-06-17 11:43 -0300

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