Pascal int()
John W. Baxter
jwbnews at scandaroon.com
Mon Mar 20 14:57:01 EST 2000
In article <38D66680.316F21D1 at roguewave.com>, Bjorn Pettersen
<bjorn at roguewave.com> wrote:
> Gordon McMillan wrote:
> > [...]
> > I can assure you that no Python god, archangel, angel,
> > seraphim or cherubim would ever write anything but
> > a = a + 1
> >
> > - Gordon
>
> ... of course, if P3K changed the meaning of 5 from "the object 5" to
> "a constructor for an Integer class, setting the value to 5" you could
> do all kinds of fun things, including:
>
> a = 5
> a.inc()
>
> And even though it would be backwards compatible, I don't really have
> high hopes for it being accepted (change? we don't need no stinking
> change ;-)
>
> -- bjorn
>
Nothing would prevent building an int wrapper similar to UserDict
(except, perhaps, a slavish desire for performance of one's integers).
The hypothetical UserInt's hypothetical subclass could certainly define
the method inc().
Personally, I'd rather write a = a + 1. I seldom used inc() whist
writing Pascal, either, except for incrementing variables of types like
(red, blue, green, khaki, oliveDrab).
(Various language implementations--some LISPs, some SmallTalks--show
that by sacrificing some of the range of int, one can make int a class
quite nicely. I doubt that there would be many votes in favor of
reducing int to 29 bits (or whatever).)
--John
--
John W. Baxter Port Ludlow, WA USA jwbnews at scandaroon.com
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