[q-lang-users] Symbol type

[Burton S. <kr...@gm...>]

Hi Again,

So, after getting over my little problem with the prelude option, I
managed to expand my cat routine in the following way, to handle
multiple arguments:

cat F:String = cat_file (fopen F "r");
cat F:File = cat_file F;
cat F = cat_file (fopen (str F) "r") if issym F;
      = prints "cat: unsupported type";

cat_file F:File = () if feof F;
           = putc (fgetc F) || cat F otherwise;


Since I'm just learning the language, I figured I'd make a cat
function that handled multiple types, like actual File handles,
string/quoted names and symbol names (so it looked more like the Unix
shell).

The only problem that I found with that was that there was no Symbol
type (that I could find), so my code for handling that case had to
differ from the String and File handlers by using an 'if issym' call,
which works fine, but breaks consistency with the other options.

Not that that is a big problem, but one of the reasons I like higher
level languages is their ability to work with actual language symbols
as a type (something about the idea of symbols works very well with
how my brain is wired).  Is the Symbol type left out for a reason, or
is it under a different name that I haven't found yet?  Would there be
any objection to adding it?

-- 
burton samograd                                                kr...@gm...
kruhft.boldlygoingnowhere.org              www.myspace.com/kruhft