Re: Zero as False

[Tim Hill <drtimhill@...>]

On Nov 19, 2013, at 3:40 PM, Paige DePol <lual@serfnet.org> wrote:

>> On Nov 19, 2013, at 5:32 PM, Coda Highland <chighland@gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> It may not actually be an issue. The change you've been describing has
>> MOSTLY been "zero is falsy" rather than "zero is identical to false".
>> If that's the case, I personally wouldn't have a problem with saying
>> that (0 == false) is false even if 0 evaluates falsy in a boolean
>> context.
>> 
>> Really, it's the "and" and "or" operators that are the real concern,
>> moreso than equality comparisons.
>> 
>> /s/ Adam
> 
> Well right now 0 is "mostly false" as Douglas Adams may say... lol! Boolean operations using 0 do treat it as false, including and/or, just those equality operators that are being tricksy when using the boolean true/false keywords! ;(
> 
> I am interested in tracking down why the equality operators do not treat 0 as false though, mostly for my own understanding, but also so I can have a true "0 is always false" patch with no half-measures! ;)
> 
> ~pmd~
> 
> 

As has been noted, I don’t think “0 == false” should be true anyway .. in current Lua “nil == false” is also false. It’s important not to confuse “false-ness” with the value “false”.

—Tim