"do" stuff in Coffeescript

I can't deny that I have an attraction to coffeescript. I can't even fully explain it. I think it might be the super-tight syntax, ability to not have to depend on parenthesis or curly brackets, and zippy server-side templating engines like CoffeeKup or Eco. Of course there are pros and cons to coffeescript (I'll abbreviate to CS), and I definitely don't use it in all cases. The point of this post isn't to love or hate on CS; I'll leave that to others more qualified than myself.

As I've been learning CS there are a couple of things I normally do in javascript that I couldn't quite figure out how to do:

• The right way to call a function with no arguments
• Immediately execute anonymous functionality, like in a switch statement

It turns out that they both hinge on using the same keyword: "do."

No-Argument Functions
CS is very sparse in its use of parenthesis; calling functions with arguments makes clear sense, but it's not immediately clear how functions without arguments get called. Check out the two lines of code:

	#Calling a function with arguments:
	returnData = processData "First Argument", 3, "third"
	#Pretend the same function had no arguments, call like this? No, wrong:
	returnData = processData

view raw one_arg_cs_func_wrong_way.coffee hosted with ❤ by GitHub

The second line of code seems logical, but we can't forget this is still javascript. The processData function is an object after all, so that line of code merely assigns processData to returnData. Adding parenthesis works - that is, processData() - but I figured there was a more "coffeescript-y" way to do it. Enter "do:"

	#The right way to call the no-argument function:
	returnData = do processData

view raw one_arg_cs_func_right_way.coffee hosted with ❤ by GitHub

There is the CS way to do things! Calls the function perfectly. "do" Helps us elsewhere too:

Immediately Call Anonymous Functionality:
In a similar fashion, there are times when an anonymous function is immediately called, as opposed to in a callback fashion. I'll just show the code:

	switch message
	when "hi" then returnData = "bye"
	when "goodbye" then do ->
	part1 = "This is just "
	part2 = "a sample of how to do this"
	returnData = part1 + part2

view raw immediate_call_inline_function.coffee hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Again, "do" is the secret weapon here. When supplying callback function to CS, you can just specify inline without "do." But in the case of the switch statement it needs to called immediately, hence the keyword.

Those are the two cases that I was able to find, but perhaps there are more ways "do" is used in CS. Did I miss anything?