Re: [q-lang-users] New stuff in cvs: multichar ops, views

[Rob H. <hub...@gm...>]

Hello,

On 28/06/07, Albert Graef <Dr....@t-...> wrote:
> Well, I see a rationale behind this, as :+ really is an addition
> operator, so there is a case for treating it as such.

This is a rare occasion where I *strongly* disagree. The purpose of
(+:) is to form complex numbers syntactically, when they are in some
sense 'atomic' or 'literal' semantically.

For (+:) to bind so weakly (i.e. as if it is an ordinary addition
operator) makes its behaviour surprising. Python get this wrong, but
only because it really does just use the ordinary + operator. Haskell
certainly gets this wrong.

Please don't let Q follow suit and also get this wrong.

   ==> 1+:2 * 3+:4
   1+:10 // is wrong (and surprising)
   -5+:10 // is right

Rob.