Re: repeat function

[haahr@mv.us.adobe.com (Paul Haahr)]

i came up with

	fn repeat n cmd {
		let (counter =) {
			while {!~ $#counter $n} {
				$cmd
				counter = $counter 1
			}
		}
	}

it has two disadvantages:

	(a) the counter list grows proportional to n, which is inefficient
	(b) an ill-formed number causes infinite recursion

(b) is more serious, so a slight improvement is

	fn repeat n cmd {
		let (counter =) {
			result $counter($n)
			while {!~ $#counter $n} {
				$cmd
				counter = $counter 1
			}
		}
	}

(note the ``useless'' result statement inside the let.)  this version
will raise an exception if the number is not legal as a subscript.
that should catch most problems.

as for (a), nothing short of adding arithmetic to the shell would
really address that.  people have proposed that for es, but Byron & i
are very hesitant.  we know some shells have arithmetic or at least
an expr builtin, but some shells have !-history, too.

paul