Proposal: function which simulates C ?: operator

[Peter Hansen]

Reinhold Birkenfeld wrote:

> Peter Hansen wrote:
>>Reinhold Birkenfeld wrote:
>>>ACK.
>>
>>Ironic that Bill the Cat changed the meaning of that from
>>positive to negative. :-)  (Or did he always use mixed-case,
>>so that all-caps ACK is still uniquely ASCII?)
> 
> Well, I don't know Bill the Cat, should I?

Probably not. :-)  It was a comic strip called "Bloom County"
which featured among many other things a cat named Bill who
was, uh, just a tad incoherent, and given to mutterings like
"Ack! Pthft!"

See http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Bill%20the%20Cat
for background, and the following for a nice pic:
http://www.premier.net/~cspedale/opus/images/bill2.jpg

-Peter