Edward Diener wrote:
Paul D. Anderson wrote:
Sounds like someone needs a strong dose of D!!
http://java.dzone.com/articles/why-java-doesnt-need-operator
The comments bounce between "operator overloading is always bad
because you can do idiotic things with it" and "operator overloading
is essential because sometimes you really need it".
How about a language where operator overloading is available for the
cases where you do really need it, but isn't available in general?
Hmmm...
Java's lack of operator overloading is the most idiotic language
decision which I have ever encountered. The arguments against operator
overloading are equivalent to "if we allow feature X, programmers might
not use it the way we have decided it should be used, therefore we won't
allow it". "Idiotic" is not even a strong enough word to describe the
retrograde thinking of the Java fanatics, and Sun, who have decided to
tell programmers what is good for them, whether they want to swallow
that pill or not.
Java is the only major language I use which does not have operator
overloading. C++, Python, Ruby, C#, and D all have operator overloading.
Among other things this means that while 1 + 2 in Java is valid, if I
write a BigInteger Java class I must write: BigInteger a = 1; BigInteger
b = 2; BigInteger c = a.Add(b); or some such other nonsense rather than
the completely natural BigInteger c = a + b;.
To say that the lack of operator overloading in Java somehow makes the
language "better" or "clearer to use" is so ludicrous it needs no
further comment.
Eventually Java will add operator overloading, since Sun's fanaticism is
clearly earning them a quick exit into buyout land ( if not IBM today it
will be someone else tomorrow ). Then everyone from the Java fanatic
camp will smile and say "wasn't that a brilliant decision Sun made", as
if it hadn't been made by everyone else ages ago.
Sorry for the non-D related diatribe but someone else started this
thread and I can't help remarking how stupid a language must be in this
day and time which does not support operator overloading for ease of
syntax use.
This has happened before. Somehow Java has this penchant for attracting
odd groupies. Pretty much every feature that Java didn't have was
vilified by zealots until adoption, when all of a sudden it became a
brilliant decision.
Andrei
