Re: [Caml-list] Request for comments: Printf list conversion

[Bill Wood <william.wood3@comcast.net>]

On Fri, 2006-01-13 at 10:31 +0100, Hendrik Tews wrote:
   . . .
> I doubt anybody will yelp. Having a printf format for 'a list it

That would be nice :-).  However, even some lispers have complained
(with some justification) that writing format forms was like writing
TECO macros, or minimalistic Perl.

> BTW, what is the common list solution for printing separators
> just between the list elements?

There is no special provision for separators that I know of.  I always
just took the cheap way out, first formatting the head of the list and
then formatting the tail with a list format that prints the separator
and then the next item.  A sample transcript in CLISP is*

(let ((xs '(0 1 2 3)))
  (format t "~%>~s~{, ~s~}<~%" (first xs) (rest xs)))

>0, 1, 2, 3<

This is facilitated by the conditional format directive, allowing
different formats depending on whether the list argument is empty or
non-empty.

 -- Bill Wood

* The syntax of the CL format form is
    (format <target> <format string> <arg> ...)
  where <target> specifies returning a string, printing to stdout, or
  printing to a stream, <format string> is a string containing format
  directives together with ordinary characters, and the remaining args
  are the objects being formatted out.

  Format directives are prefixed with "~"; the directive "~%" produces a
  newline and the directive "~s" formats any lisp s-expression, like a
  Haskell "show x".

 -- wtw