Re: lpeg question

[Roberto Ierusalimschy <roberto@...>]

> I don't interpret the manual that way. I read that as saying that you
> cannot modify the length operator for a string. But __len is defined
> as a length operation, is it not?

I am not sure what you mean by "__len is defined as a length operation".
It is *called* the length operator, but a name does not give its
semantics. __add is also related to the "addition operation", but that
name does not imply that it is an addition.

Note the following:

1) The __eq metamethod, which always returns a boolean, says so:

  "The result of the call is always converted to a boolean."

2) The API for the length operation does not return a number, but a
Lua value. (The same is true for addition, but not for comparisons.)

-- Roberto