On Nov 27, 2008, at 12:29 PM, Robert Dober wrote:

> On Thu, Nov 27, 2008 at 6:12 PM,  <brabuhr / gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Thu, Nov 27, 2008 at 11:47 AM, Robert Dober <robert.dober / gmail.com 
>> > wrote:
>>> On Thu, Nov 27, 2008 at 4:57 PM, Charles Oliver Nutter
>>> <charles.nutter / sun.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> DO NOT use unless...else. It's the most confusing conditional  
>>>> construct
>>>> ever. Use if and flop the bodies, or just use if !condition.
>>>
>>> I have never heard you shout before, *unless* I am mistaken ;).
>>> I always felt that unless is just the human readable way of saying  
>>> if
>>> not, but accountants do not have any taste (or something like  
>>> that ;).
>>
>> I don't think the confusion issue was simply unless, but rather
>> pairing unless with else.
> Hmm that indeed is a little more misleading, sorry for not getting
> this but the ellipsis put me astray;).

Not entirely on topic, but the biggest issue I've had with  
"unless...else" is that you can't do "unless...elsif...else".

I somewhat frequently find myself adding conditionals for extra corner  
cases, and in an "unless...else" block, that means re-writing the  
whole thing as an "if not...else block" anyway.

-Josh