OpenEuphoria

Syntax of &-operator

• Posted by Lutz_Heitmann at NF.MAUS.DE Apr 01, 2001
• 556 views

Hi Euphorians,

I don't like the syntax of the &-operator. & is a fine tool to concatenate 
sequences, but its use is error prone. If you combine variables a and b you 
get different results, depending on the types of a and b. E.g.:

a =  1,     b =  3     results in a & b = append({a}, b)
a = {1, 2}, b =  3     results in a & b = append(a, b)
a =  1,     b = {3, 4} results in a & b = prepend(b, a)
a = {1, 2}, b = {3, 4} results in a & b = concat(a, b) -- {1, 2, 3, 4}

I'm using "concat" for the only usage of "&" that makes sense to me. Of 
course I don't want something like a & b & c & d (all atoms) to be written 
like this:

append(append(append({a},b),c),d)

It could be coded like this:

{a} & {b} & {c} & {d}

-- "concat" is just too long as a word

A little bit more typing but a lot clearer. A lot of programs are using "&" 
the "old" way, and that can't be changed. But I still don't like it...

Lutz.