Re: Handling pathological lists

keithv wrote:
> But let me restate the problem: write a routine that
> flattens a list, e.g.

The problem here is, again, that the requirements are underspecified.
What exactly do you mean by "flatten a list"? After all,
    a {b c {d e} f} g
is already a flat string. It's not like it's LISP we're talking about.

Once you express it in a way that makes sense in Tcl, the implementation
becomes obvious. For example, you might mean "Attempt to interpret the
input as a list with sublists, and repeatedly remove inner levels of the
list until the input can no longer be interpreted as a list or the
input's elements can no longer be interpreted as lists" or some such.

Basically, "flatten a list" doesn't make sense if the input cannot be
interpreted as a list, so if you don't specify what to do in that case,
you've specified only half the problem. And you're complaining that it
doesn't work for the unspecified cases.

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
    Neither rocks nor slush nor salted rims
    shall keep us from our appointed rounds.