Re: The meaning of 'sugar' [Forked from Re: Why do we have ipairs?]

[Daniel Silverstone <dsilvers@...>]

On Wed, Jun 11, 2014 at 16:56:34 +0200, Francisco Olarte wrote:
> > For example, the intent of  "i = i +1" could not be clearer.
> > "++i" is shorter and sweeter for the programmer, but it is not clearer and
> > it is not more expressive.
> 
> I do not think you've picked a very good example. Many people, me
> among them, parse '++i' as 'increment i' in one simple pass, and when
> you have something like
> ++a_very_long_variable_name_becuase_it_is_a_global, it's much clearer.

I would have to respectfully disagree here.  Since I work with C a lot, I have
to parse "++i" as "read the value of i, increment it, store it back to i, and
evaluate to the new value of i"  since that is subtly, but importantly,
different to "i++" which evaluates to the original value of i.

I find mutation operators to generally be unpleasant except as assignments (i
+= 1) for example.

D.

-- 
Daniel Silverstone                         http://www.digital-scurf.org/
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