Re: Symmetry between language and C API (Was: (not) handling new programming idioms with grace

[Dirk Laurie <dirk.laurie@...>]

2018-07-23 16:07 GMT+02:00 Scott Morgan <blumf@blueyonder.co.uk>:
> On 23/07/18 14:26, Axel Kittenberger wrote:
>>> To write an efficient pure Lua routine is possible, but quite challenging.
>>
>> an O( n * log( n ) ) one:
>> """
>> function _concat( t, p, n )
>>     if n > 1 then
>>         local n2 = n // 2
>>         return _concat( t, p, n2 ) .. _concat( t, p + n2, n - n2 )
>>     end
>>     return t[ p ]
>> end
>>
>> function concat( tbl )
>>     return _concat( tbl, 1, #tbl )
>> end
>> """
>> For lua < 5.3 use math.floor( n / 2) or math.ceil, or round or whatever, it
>> doesn't matter.
>
> How about:
>
> function concat(list, sep, i, j)
>   i = i or 1
>   j = j or #list
>
>   local tmp = {}
>   for i=1,#list do
>     tmp[i] = tostring(list[i])
>   end
>   return table.concat(tmp, sep, i, j)
> end

You are not entitled to assume that obj1..obj2 is defined as
tostring(obj1)..tostring(obj2). You are not even entitled to
assume that the result of concatenation is string-valued.

For example, concat may mean list concatenation.

obj{1,2,3}..obj{4,5} --> obj{1,2,3,4,5}