From: Gyepi SAM <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2010 22:23:27 -0400
. . .
I think '$[' would more useful if it could be scoped to individual
arrays.
I have used languages (PL/1 and Pascal come to mind) that allow you to
declare both upper and lower bounds to each array dimension. But for
both languages, I have found such arrays more trouble than they are
worth. A Pascal example I saw created a histogram of something grouped
by year (declared as "array [1970..1984] of integer", or some such).
But since the bounds must be fixed at compile time, you cannot write a
practical *general* histogram generator this way.
Of course, a large part of the problem with these languages is
compile-time binding of array dimensions, so maybe there are better use
cases. But note that even Common Lisp, which supports multidimensional
arrays with dynamic upper bounds, still fixes all lower bounds to 0.
Though it does seem to be of dubious utility to begin with.
-Gyepi
As a global, it's a disaster. I'm glad to hear it's slated to
disappear.
-- Bob
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