Re: = vs := and = vs ==
- Posted by _tom (admin) May 08, 2014
- 2395 views
The surprise is that this doesn't make good sense.
This is a distinction between what you can do and what you should do.
Basic's 'A' + 'B' was and still is concatenation.
The Basic language was designed to "get something working" on a mainframe computer. Design and elegance was not a consideration at that time. Kids in computer 101 ran around with punch-cards and everyone was happy to get a for loop working. Basic does not make perfect sense, but it works.
Ruby is a "whimsical language" were the syntax follows what Yukihiro Matsumoto felt made sense. Lots of people, who think like Matsumoto, like Ruby. If you think in Ruby it makes sense.
Euphoria was inspired by "speed." To get speed you need a clean direct path to that speed. That is why when you learn that + means add numbers, Euphoria always adds numbers.
If I say "Euphoria is easy to learn" it is because once you learn a principle you can depend on it. That is much simpler than saying + sometimes adds and sometimes concatenates, but that is ok because the data-types are different.
If you add a lot of "should do" (for whimsical reasons) you no longer have a Euphoria language.
_tom
