anything like C++ references?

[Tom Plunket]

Stephen Horne wrote:

> True enough. And if someone creates a language in which '+' does
> subtraction, I'm sure people could get used to that to. Doesn't mean
> it's the right thing, though.

It's often more useful to do what users want than it is to
blindly adhere to what's right and correct.

My field is video games.  Correct physics in video games is fun
for such a small percentage of players that it would be
considered niche (although it actually makes up a few niches).  A
game will get far more players by allowing those players to feel
like superheroes.  Players love the games I've worked on even
though the main character can jump from a standstill up to grab
onto a ledge 12 feet (3.6m) above the ground.  They say that it
seems realistic.

In the same ways, the most popular programming languages are not
necessarily those that are most technically correct, they are
those languages that solve problems for people the way they want
to think about the problems.  A language truly becomes used when
it becomes useful, regardless of correctness.

-tom!