Q: Can colons control backtracking in logical expressions?

[Austin Hastings]

Consider this code:

  if (specific_condition())
  {
    if (detail())
    {
      act();
    }
  }
  elsif (general_condition())
  {
    act();
  }

Logically, this turns into:

  if ((my $sc = specific_condition()) && detail())
      || (!$sc && general_condition())
  {
    act();
  }

Both look horrible, of course. I'd like to rewrite them as

  if (specific_condition() :: && detail()) || general_condition()
  {
    act();
  }

so that if specific_condition() succeeded, it would cause the entire
expression to fail if detail() failed.

The use of :: comes, of course, from rexen.

Is this feasible?

=Austin