Why doesn't join() call str() on its arguments?

[John Machin]

On Wed, 16 Feb 2005 14:24:02 -0600, Skip Montanaro <skip at pobox.com>
wrote:

>
>    John> 4. For consistency, would you like "1" + 2 to produce "12"?
>
>No, the correct answer is obviously 3. ;-)
>

Obviously, in awk. Bletch! I once had to help out some users of a
system where software development had been outsourced and upstuffed
and they needed some data file fixups done but their system was so
locked down even the manufacturer-supplied free pre-ANSI C compiler
had been deleted and one couldn't download stuff off the net but the
thought police had overlooked awk ... I even had to implement proper
CSV-reading routines in awk. No thanks for reminding me :-(