From: Logan Capaldo <logancapaldo@...>
Date: 2007-10-02T05:20:04+09:00
Subject: Re: Can you please help to make decision?

On 10/1/07, Chad Perrin <perrin@apotheon.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 01, 2007 at 03:25:37AM +0900, 7stud -- wrote:
> > Here's a simple test for the op.  Which of the following do you think is
> > easier to understand?  Can you guess what each program does?
> >
> > language1:
> > --------
> >
> > colors = ["red", "blue", "green"]
> >
> > colors.each {|color| puts color}
> >
> >
> > language2:
> > ---------
> > colors = ["red", "green", "blue"]
> >
> > for color in colors:
> >     print color
>
> In the case of someone who has never programmed before, I rather think
> "colors.each {|color| puts color}" might be less confusing than "for
> color in colors:\n  print color".  I have never in my life seen anything
> in plain English that even began to look like "for color in colors", and
> the meaning of that clause is non-obvious.  Meanwhile, "colors.each" at
> least looks like it's saying something about each of something, with the
> "each" attached obviously to the "colors", suggesting that it's saying
> "for each element of the colors array".
>
> The only way the Python one looks anything like "more intuitive" to
> someone who has never encountered Ruby or Python before, as far as I can
> tell, is if that person is familiar with C.
>
You bring up an excellent point. Where the hell did "for" come from
anyway? Only thing I can think of is "for all x in X" kinds of
statements from math, but thinking about it now,  "for" seems like
such a weird word. I just looked it up, man is this word overloaded:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/for
If I ever create a language, the word "for" shall not appear as an
interation construct in it.
> --
> CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ]
> They always say that when life gives you lemons you should make lemonade.
> I always wonder -- isn't the lemonade going to suck if life doesn't give
> you any sugar?
>
>