Re: [q-lang-users] Q 7.2 RC1 Issue 2: Notation

[John C. <co...@cc...>]

Albert Graef scripsit:

> Let's face it, the only punctuation symbols in 7 bit ASCII which look 
> right for a division operator are /, %, \ and |. We can't use /, \ or |, 
> so the only obvious choice left is %. Since Q uses the div/mod pair for 
> integer division and Int/Int yields a Float, I don't see how someone 
> could mistake % for the remainder of integer division.

I'm okay with %.  Although it is used in C-ish languages including Perl,
the operation is not exactly common anywhere.  And if you tilt your head
a bit to the left, % even looks like a division sign.

That reminds me.  Thinking about | gave me to wonder: since improper
tuples like (1|2) are not stored contiguously, and the 2 is not accessible
with !, do they really make any sense?  Ancient Lisp tradition requires us
to allow improper lists like [A|B], but I think improper tuples should go,
and improper streams as well.  

(My current plan for the Q egg is to treat improper tuples as opaque
objects, whereas ordinary tuples will be mapped to Chicken vectors.)

-- 
You escaped them by the will-death              John Cowan
and the Way of the Black Wheel.                 co...@cc...
I could not.  --Great-Souled Sam                http://www.ccil.org/~cowan