New feature in v3: cast!

[Alan DeKok]

Matthew Newton wrote:
> 'update' sections have been a pain in the past, but with the new
> ability to update multiple things in one section, it's much
> better. It does separate 'unlang' from most languages, and makes
> it look more like a configuration than a program. As much as
> removing/depracating it seems good (and I agree it is more usual
> for programmers), I'm not sure it's the best thing for a
> configuration language.

  I agree.  It may be useful, or it may be too confusing.

> I'm slightly struggling to see why the new '&' is needed. I'm
> probably being a bit slow!

  Nope.

> Obviously
> 
>   "%{Example-Attribute}"
> 
> is a string, but why not:
> 
>   %{Example-Attribute}
> 
> rather than
> 
>   &Example-Attribute

  The %{...} is verbose (IMHO).  Plus, the xlat API is *completely*
separated from the conditional parser.  So exposing the internals of
xlat to unlang requires some careful butchering of the code.

  Adding '&' was simpler.  And is prettier.

> So what is the difference between
> 
>   &User-Name := "prefix%{User-Name}"
> 
> and
> 
>   %{User-Name} := "prefix%{User-Name}"
> 
> apart from the latter is slightly longer to type, of course!

  The first one requires no knowledge of the xlat internals.

  Alan DeKok.