Re: [ANN] Lua 5.2.0 (work2) now available

[Ignacio Burgueño <ignaciob@...>]

On 15/01/2010 06:22, David Kastrup wrote:
> Ignacio Burgueño<ignaciob@inconcertcc.com>  writes:
>
> > For me, __len has clear semantics. The length of something is
> > measurable in 'n' units, with 'n' being a number.
>
> Disagree.  If I implement a table "naturals" with iterators that will
> never stop, I can make __len return a specific value aleph0 that is not
> a number.

This is a good example. I hadn't thought of stuff like this.

> Virtualizing tables via metatables offers some possibilities where it
> does not make sense to artificially add restrictions that serve no
> purpose except adding restrictions.  Complicating the language in order
> to be able to do less with it is a bad deal.
...
> A restriction that is only there in order to incur penalties for program
> and programmer, without inherent necessity, is one I can do without.

Agreed. This is completely reasonable.

Regards,
Ignacio