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From: Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell,comp.unix.programmer,comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Command Languages Versus Programming Languages
Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2024 18:30:12 +0200
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On 05.04.2024 01:29, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
> On 4 Apr 2024 11:20:48 GMT, Stefan Ram wrote:
> 
>> And let me tell you, when you start getting into that kind of nested
>> stuff with not parentheses in view, even the "?:" notation can start
>> looking pretty darn mysterious to some folks.
> 
> This is where indentation helps. E.g.
> 
>     a =
>         b ?
>             c ? d : e
>         : f ?
>             g ? h : i
>         : j;
> 

Indentation generally helps. In above code (in my book) it's not
that clear [from the indentation], e.g. where the last ':' 'else'
belongs to. So I'd have lined the colons up with the respective
'?'. (YMMV.)

Not all languages differentiate (per syntax) a conditional command
from a conditional expression. Here are the two forms supported by
Algol for both, statements and expressions (here the examples are
both depicted for expressions only)

    a :=
        ( b | ( c | d | e )
            | ( f | ( g | h | i )
                  | j ) );

The parenthesis are not used for grouping, but are the alternative
form for IF/THEN/ELSE/FI

    a := IF b
            THEN
                IF c THEN d ELSE e FI
            ELSE
                IF f THEN
                        IF g THEN h ELSE i FI
                     ELSE j FI
            FI

Pick your choice depending on the case (or taste).

Janis