"Bill Baxter" <wbax...@gmail.com> wrote in message news:mailman.530.1233135120.22690.digitalmar...@puremagic.com... > On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 6:07 PM, Nick Sabalausky <a...@a.a> wrote: > >> Isn't "tail" the standard counterpart to "head"? ("toe" just doesn't >> sound >> good) > > Tail has a history of being used to mean "everything but head" in > functional programming languages like Haskel and ML. > > So of back, last, end, tail, rear, foot, toe, it seems every one has > some strike against it. > > back - could be mistaken for an action > last - doesn't pair well with "head", and "first" sounds too much like > item #1 overall > end - in C++ usually means "one past the end" > tail - in FP langs means "everything but head" > rear - makes Walter thing unhappy thoughts > toe - sounds silly, doesn't make so much sense for a range that > represents a tree structure. > > Toe is sounding pretty ok. > > Actually I think the critique that it doesn't make sense for a > non-linear range should be thrown out. Linearizing is the whole > purpose of a range. So even if it wasn't linear before, a range > effective is providing a linearized view of it. > > So that leaves "it sounds silly", which is a pretty weak subjective > argument against. > > --bb
How about "it sounds really, really silly"? ;)
