From: Todd Benson <caduceass@...>
Date: 2007-11-21T17:54:56+09:00
Subject: Re: Open-ended ranges?

On Nov 19, 2007 9:13 AM, Yossef Mendelssohn <ymendel@pobox.com> wrote:
> On Nov 19, 6:54 am, "Todd Benson" <caduce...@gmail.com> wrote:

> What I don't understand is why so many people find an open-ended range
> to be pointless. That is to say I do understand why --- because
> they're set on iterating over the range --- but I don't understand why
> they consider that to be the only use of a range.

Well, I suppose for me it is sort of a weird use of the word Range.
Maybe OpenInterval would work better?

>
> Everyone I've seen who's interested in this (myself included) is using
> these ranges for another reason, to indicate a range of acceptable (or
> maybe even unacceptable values). A range like 5..Infinity is not
> intended for iteration, but for comparison.

5..Infinity is not 5..nil.  I think it's also not a
5..some_number_to_be_determined_in_the_future.  I guess that's the
point I was trying to make.  It violates the generic least common
denominator practice present not only in the language, but also its
users.

>
> --
> -yossef
>
>
Sorry if I wasn't clear,
Todd