[racket-dev] Simple loop checking in beginner?

On Wed, Nov 10, 2010 at 10:40 AM, namekuseijin <namekuseijin at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 10, 2010 at 12:13 AM, John Clements
> <clements at brinckerhoff.org> wrote:
>> ;; NOW I'M A STUDENT:
>>
>> ;; only-long-strings : (listof string) -> (listof string)
>> ;; return a list containing the strings longer than 2 chars
>> (define/noloop (only-long-strings l)
>>  (cond [(empty? l) empty]
>>        [else (cond [(< 2 (string-length (first l)))
>>                     (cons (first l)
>>                           (only-long-strings (rest l)))]
>>                    [else (only-long-strings l)])]))
>
> gosh, students do suck.  I guess you teach them to use cond because
> it's a generalized if.  But then they proceed to use it just like if:
> always two conditions per (verbose) cond! :p

I disagree - the outer `cond' has 2 clauses because it it processing a
data definition - (listof string) - which has 2 clauses.  The second
`cond' clause, which processes conses, has a conditional as well, but
there's certainly nothing wrong with having the structure of your
program match the structure of your data, especially not for HtDP
programs.
-- 
sam th
samth at ccs.neu.edu