No ifs, ands, or buts - Uncovering the simplicity of conditionals
Schematic tables are a new representation for conditionals. Roughly a cross between decision tables and data flow graphs, they represent computation and decision-making orthogonally. They unify the full range of conditional constructs, from if statements through pattern matching to polymorphic predicate dispatch. Program logic is maintained in a declarative canonical form that enforces completeness and disjointness among choices. Schematic tables can be used either as a code specification/generation tool, or as a self-contained diagrammatic programming language. They give program logic the clarity of truth tables, and support high-level direct manipulation of that logic, avoiding much of the mental computation demanded by conventional conditionals.
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