From: Matthew Moss <matthew.moss.coder@...>
Date: 2006-03-18T02:09:20+09:00
Subject: Re: Card tricks with Ruby

> > Yah, [x..y], [x..y), (x..y], (x..y) would be sweetness.  It's slightly less
> > error-prone IMO since it's following a common (math) notation. Still, maybe
> > not perfect.
>
> Can you really stand to look at that?  It gives me the same feeling as
> putting my shoes on the wrong feet :-)

As part-mathematician, I whole-heartedly say, "Yes!"  It's a compact,
consistent and clear representation of closed [ and open ( ends of
ranges.

As part-programmer, I recognize that it would be a bitch to parse,
considering how often we make use of braces for all sorts of other
needs (array access, expression grouping, function calls, etc, etc,
etc).


> I'm not sure what it is about the range operators that bothers you.
> Are you finding it hard to remember which is which?  My way of
> remembering is: every range is the same width, in relation to the
> operators.  Since the ... operator is wider, the end-point gets pushed
> outside the range:
>
>          v  v
>          a..b
>          a...b
>          ^  ^

This is basically how I now remember the difference between the two,
and so having both operators doesn't bother me as much anymore.  But I
will admit that at first I could never remember the difference, and
can see it as confusing to newbs.