Re: Lua 5.3: wrong coercion?

[Lorenzo Donati <lorenzodonatibz@...>]

On 16/01/2015 22:38, Roberto Ierusalimschy wrote:
> > Is there a reason why the coercion first recognizes the string as
> > representing an int and then "throws away" that info and converts it
> > unconditionally into a float?
>
> We want a fast track for integers, so the first check is simply whether
> both operands are integers. After that check, it is too cumbersome to
> recheck whether the strings are "integers" and then also do an integer
> operation.
>
> -- Roberto
Thanks for the clarification!

I'm not really sure, maybe I just must get used to it, but the whole 
string->number automatic coercion thing seems to have become a bit 
overcomplicated. I only relied a few times on this behavior before (pre 
5.3), so I wouldn't miss it should you remove it from the language and 
raise an error whenever a string is used where a number is expected. As 
it stands now the feature seems to me a bit counterintuitive or at least 
too convoluted and perhaps can cause more harm than good. Just a gut 
feeling, though. (my 2c)

Cheers!

-- Lorenzo