OpenEuphoria

re: Just say 'YES' to strings

• Posted by irv mullins <irvm at ellijay.com> Jun 04, 2004
• 542 views

FDe(censored) wrote:
> 
> re irv:
> 
> i'm not sure what your agenda is, wanting a datatype which prints "John"
> instead of
> whatever john is in {0,1,2,3}. That's not a datatype, what you are referring
> to is
> a method of output, specifically to a terminal.

Sorry, but you are incorrect.

If I create an integer variable, and try to assign 3.4567 to that variable,
it will be flagged as an error. 

When I print out an integer variable, it will not print with a decimal 
point and trailing zeros.

So an integer is not a datatype - just an output method, 
specificlly to a terminal. Right?

> just use puts() instead of print() or its alias, ?

I (and others) have already given examples of why this is both 
inefficient and confusing, as well as examples of other (simpler) 
languages which handle strings in a logical manner.

> if a string type was implemented in euphoria, it would have to be:

We know that a string (or any other) type cannot be implemented in 
Euphoria. But if it *could* be, what makes you think it would have 
to be any of the following?

> a) an alias for a sequence in *every way*
> b) act as a sequence in all logical operations
> c) act as a sequence in all mathematical operations
> d) act as a sequence in all terminal display operations
> 
> or simply, be a sequence in every way; which is flagged to put to the terminal
> window
> the actual ascii values instead of their numbers in ex.err

Many other languages have implemented string types which work *as expected*, 
yet meet none of the above requirements.

Irv