Re: another take on hackers and painters

[Michael Livshin <address@hidden>]

Dan Sugalski <dan@sidhe.org> writes:

> At 9:06 AM -0500 5/21/03, Matt Hellige wrote:
>>[Dan Sugalski <dan@sidhe.org>]
>>>  At 5:00 PM -0400 5/20/03, John Clements wrote:
>>>  >...
>>>  >
>>>  >Depends what you mean by "a type problem."  If I'm adding a number
>>>  >and a string, that's definitely a "type problem,"
>>>
>>>  Is it? What's wrong with 1 + "3" producing 4?
>>
>>Wow... That just makes me cringe... And sets off my "perl proximity"
>>alarm. By the same token, why not have 1 + "3" produce the string "13"?
>
> It could, sure, but + generally notes addition, and both sides *are*
> numbers, after all.

no, they are not.  but both sides can be defined to be valid number
designators, in the eye of the sufficiently perverse beholder.

-- 
You have a tendency to feel you are superior to most computers.