[Lazarus] 'with' is evil, isn't it?

[Mark Morgan Lloyd]

Michael Van Canneyt wrote:
> On Wed, 3 Aug 2011, Mark Morgan Lloyd wrote:
> 
>> Michael Van Canneyt wrote:
>>> On Wed, 3 Aug 2011, Graeme Geldenhuys wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 08/03/2011 02:00 PM, Alexander Klenin wrote:
>>>>> Anyway, my preferred solution would be to allow aliases in 'with' 
>>>>> statement,
>>>>> which would improve readability even further while sacrificing only a
>>>>> few characters:
>>>>>
>>>>> with a := MyCompomentList[0] do begin
>>>>>   Rectangle(0, 0, a.Width, a.Height);
>>>>> end;
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> A simple solution to something which I don't think is a problem either.
>>>> [I fully agree with Michael van Canneyt here]
>>>
>>> I agree the above is indeed an acceptable solution.
>>>
>>> But I do think it is a corner case, because it goes against pascal 
>>> philosophy which says that all identifiers must be declared prior to 
>>> being used.
>>
>> How about
>>
>> with const a = MyCompomentList[0] do begin
>>  Rectangle(0, 0, a.Width, a.Height);
>> end;
>>
>> a is, after all, a constant: it can't be changed and doesn't occupy 
>> any storage.
> 
> Sorry, but that's even more ugly.
> 
> My point was that in pascal, you explicitly separate declaration blocks 
> from code blocks.
> The above construct does away with that by putting the 'declaration' in 
> the code itself.
> Personally, I do not welcome such a change. There is a reason for this 
> separation.
> 
> Due to circumstances, I program a lot of Javascript these days. It's 
> totally unreadable because it is littered with such 'easy-going' 
> constructs.
> You can do some nice tricks with it, but at the same time, it's much 
> more error prone than Pascal.
> 
> So, any attempt to introduce such 'features' will never be met with 
> applause from me.
> (and that's putting it mildly ;))
> 
> I often wonder why people keep asking for such things in Pascal.
> 
> To me, introduction of features found in other languages make it less 
> Object Pascal,
> when bringing in fact very little gain. I've seen many 'features' added, 
> I even use them. But none of them have made me more productive or made 
> it easier to debug my code.
> 
> I like to compare it with the game of chess:
> It's not like the chess community introduces new moves every year to 
> make it interesting or cool.
> 
> If you don't like the strict rules of chess, go play something else. For 
> example, "Magic: the gathering". They introduce new cards all the time:
> have fun, knock yourself out ! (I don't know if it still exists, at that)

Sure it's ugly. But  with  does have its uses, and anything which can be 
done to limit the scope for abuse has to be a Good Thing.

-- 
Mark Morgan Lloyd
markMLl .AT. telemetry.co .DOT. uk

[Opinions above are the author's, not those of his employers or colleagues]