File lists - function or command?

[Richard Gaskin]

David Bovill wrote:
> Richard I do not recall that thread but my take on this is that the
> differences fall into:
> 
>   1) Functional - now whats a better word for this :)
> 
> The functional distinction is AFAIK almost zero. There is only one possible
> functional issue that I came across a few years back - which may have
> changed and remains "unconfirmed". That is with "sending" messages. While
> you can "send" both "functions" and "commands" - I found a situation where
> somewhere down the chain "sending" of a function became problematic. It may
> have been an issue with arrays - either way I switched to "commands" in
> situations where I need to "send" complex data around and cutom properties
> where I can use more simple data structures.Mainly for stylistic reasons
> (see below).
> 
>   2) Stylistic
> 
> The only other place I use commands where it is otherwise more natural to
> use a function to return a result is if I want many results and use
> pass-by-reference variables to return these.
> 
> With the functions I uses for waliking directories of stack for that matter
> - I have one complex "command" that returns multiple variables - ie file
> name, file type and a simpler function that calls the "command" - but this
> could equally be done as a "functin" with call-by-reference params - just
> which one do you return + you loose the benefit of auto-completion filling
> in that param types.

I'm generally with you across the board here, and have had no trouble 
using a recursive function to obtain file lists in all the years I've 
been doing so.

But in my weak memory I recall something about commands managing the 
memory stack more efficiently than functions, making commands more 
robust for crawls through deep directory structures.

Ken Ray, got any insight into this?  Or did the issue go away with more 
recent versions of Rev?  Or am I just senile?

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Media Corporation
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