Weird error message when trying to compile (try 1 (error))

[iacore]

❯ janet
Janet 1.38.0-d96e5848 linux/x64/gcc - '(doc)' for help
repl:1:> (try 1 (error))
repl:1:1: compile error: unexpected type in destructuring, got 101

The error message is weird. (got 101)

[sogaiu]

May be that's not quite the intended usage pattern for try?

(try body catch)

Try something and catch errors. `body` is any expression, and 
`catch` should be a form, the first element of which is a tuple. 

So perhaps something like this?

(try
  1                     # `body`
  ([e] (error "hi")))   # `catch` should be a form, the first element of which is a tuple

I think 101 is the decimal value for lower case e in ASCII (the first letter in error).

I agree the error message is cryptic.

[iacore]

May be that's not quite the intended usage pattern for try?

I got confused because I expected catch to be a normal expression. Is there a reason why the macro is not (try 1 (fn [e] (error "hi"))) or (try 1 (error "hi")) (most macros are used like this)?

Should we support (try 1 ([] (error "hi")))?

[sogaiu]

Is there a reason why the macro is not (try 1 (fn [e] (error "hi"))) or (try 1 (error "hi"))

No idea :)

FWIW, it looks like the current form was the way it was when try was added originally [1].

Should we support (try 1 ([] (error "hi")))?

It seems like it would be a backward-compatible change. May be a PR would be accepted?

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[1] Not sure that's where try was added, but that's where following blame landed me.