Unban and and or control flow operators

README.adoc

@@ -1420,57 +1420,65 @@ def banned?
 end
 ----
 
-=== `and`/`or` [[no-and-or-or]]
+=== `and`/`or` [[no-and-or-or]] [[and-or-flow]]
 
-The `and` and `or` keywords are banned.
-The minimal added readability is just not worth the high probability of introducing subtle bugs.
-For boolean expressions, always use `&&` and `||` instead.
-For flow control, use `if` and `unless`; `&&` and `||` are also acceptable but less clear.
+`and` and `or` are control flow operators. They have very low precedence, and can be used as a short
+form of specifying flow sequences like "evaluate expression 1, and only if it is not successful
+(returned `nil`), evaluate expression 2". This is especially useful for raising errors or early
+return without breaking the reading flow.
 
 [source,ruby]
 ----
-# bad
-# boolean expression
-ok = got_needed_arguments and arguments_are_valid
+# good: and/or for control flow
+x = extract_arguments or raise ArgumentError, "Not enough arguments!"
+user.suspended? and return :denied
 
-# control flow
-document.save or raise("Failed to save document!")
+# bad
+# and/or in conditions (their precedence is low, might produce unexpected result)
+if got_needed_arguments and arguments_valid
+  # ...body omitted
+end
+# in logical expression calculation
+ok = got_needed_arguments and arguments_valid
 
 # good
-# boolean expression
-ok = got_needed_arguments && arguments_are_valid
-
-# control flow
-raise("Failed to save document!") unless document.save
+# &&/|| in conditions
+if got_needed_arguments && arguments_valid
+  # ...body omitted
+end
+# in logical expression calculation
+ok = got_needed_arguments && arguments_valid
 
-# ok
-# control flow
-document.save || raise("Failed to save document!")
+# bad
+# &&/|| for control flow (can lead to very surprising results)
+x = extract_arguments || raise(ArgumentError, "Not enough arguments!")
 ----
 
-.Why Ban `and` and `or`?
-****
-The main reason is very simple - they add a lot of cognitive overhead, as they don't behave like similarly named operators in other languages.
-
-First of all, `and` and `or` operators have lower precedence than the `=` operator, whereas the `&&` and `||` operators have higher precedence than the `=` operator, based on order of operations.
+But avoid several control flow operators in one expression, that becomes
+confusing:
 
 [source,ruby]
 ----
-foo = true and false # results in foo being equal to true. Equivalent to ( foo = true ) and false
-bar = false or true  # results in bar being equal to false. Equivalent to ( bar = false ) or true
-----
+# bad
+# Did author mean conditional return because `#log` could result in `nil`?
+# ...or was it just to have a smart one-liner?
+x = extract_arguments and log("extracted") and return
 
-Also `&&` has higher precedence than `||`, where as `and` and `or` have the same one. Funny enough, even though `and` and `or`
-were inspired by Perl, they don't have different precedence in Perl.
+# good
+# If the intention was conditional return
+x = extract_arguments
+if x
+  return if log("extracted")
+end
+# If the intention was just "log, then return"
+x = extract_arguments
+if x
+  log("extracted")
+  return
+end
+---
 
-[source,ruby]
-----
-foo = true or true and false # => false (it's effectively (true or true) and false)
-foz = true || true && false # => true (it's effectively true || (true && false)
-bar = false or true and false # => false (it's effectively (false or true) and false)
-baz = false || true && false # => false (it's effectively false || (true && false))
-----
-****
+NOTE: Whether organizing control flow with `and` and `or` is a good idea was a controversial topic in the community for a long time. But if you do, prefer these operators over `&&`/`||`.
 
 === Multi-line Ternary Operator [[no-multiline-ternary]]