RE: orthogonality and generalized references (was Re: Zen of Python)

[Avi Bryant <address@hidden>]

On Tue, 28 May 2002, Guy Steele - Sun Microsystems Labs wrote:

> Excellent analysis, Todd; thank you.  Now let us contemplate
> the even more subtle contrast, in Icon, between
>
>   /dict["foo"] := \dict["bar"]
>
> and
>
>   /dict["foo"] := dict["bar"]

Yup, that's a pretty subtle difference. Just out of curiosity - are there
any cases in which (barring side effects when modifying hashes) the
meaning would be any different at all?  For example, are there multiple
values for which / succeeds (and \ fails), or just the single null value?