[r6rs-discuss] [Formal] allow variable-length strings

[Jon Wilson]

Hi Per,
Excellent ideas.

Per Bothner wrote:
> Hence I suggest adding:
>
>   (string-append! str1 str2)
>   (string-append! str1 ch2)
> or more generally:
>   (string-append! str1 str-or-char ...)
>
> These modify str1 in place.  They return the unspecified value.
Is there any reason to return the unspecified value as opposed to 
returning str1 (post-modification)?  It seems that returning str1 would 
be more useful to a functional programming style.  Additionally, this 
would make it a drop-in replacement for the existing string-append, in 
cases where modification of str1 is not harmful.

Additionally, in analogy to the existing string-append, I would move for 
string-append! to take many args rather than just 2, modify the first 
one to become the concatenation of all of them, and then return the 
first one (modified).
Regards,
Jon