[...]
I have a proposal for a new operator (after all these years): "*t"
would
return the "size" of table t. With that operator, the insertion of a
new
element in an array would be written as <<t[*t+1] = v>>. To remove the
last element, we would write <<t[*t] = nil>>.
I quite like this, but I'm not keen on the new operator.
In a lot of ways, Lua's greatest strength (objects are tables) is also
its
greatest weakness (tables are objects). It means that we can't use OO
syntax
to manipulate tables. We can't use t.length to return the length of
the table
because it conflicts with trying to fetch the 'length' field...
Currently, using a new operator is probably the best solution, because
it
makes it clear that the operation is not calling a function (which a
pseudofunction like length(t) would not). But, is there a better way of
solving the underlying problem? Might it not be worth finally biting
the
bullet and distinguishing between field lookups and method calls?
(BTW, would this work via a metatable operation? Could you virtualise
it?)
--
+- David Given --McQ-+ (base 10) = (base pi)
| dg@cowlark.com | 1 = 1; 2 = 2; 3 = 3
| (dg@tao-group.com) | 3.1415926... = 10.0
+- www.cowlark.com --+ 4 = 12.201220211...
