Sept. 15, 2011
7:28 a.m.
Q1 When are they absolutely required?
Not needed, but convenient. JavaScript for example does't have them. Things are done differently (exceptions, return values, ...).
do you have some examples how they do that?
For example, instead of #at:ifAbsent: the array/dictionary access in JavaScript returns a special "undefined" object if the object is not present. "undefined" is a distinct object, but it behaves similar to "null" (nil). Exceptions are rarely used in JavaScript. PrototypeJS uses (or used) them for example to break and continue in enumerables (http://www.prototypejs.org/api/enumerable/each). Lukas -- Lukas Renggli www.lukas-renggli.ch