Lutger wrote:
Daniel Keep wrote:
Valery wrote:
I think that inclusive ranges more intuitive for beginner programmers
because statements:
case 1..10,
array [1..10],
foreach (int item; 1..10),
foreach_reverse (int item; 1..10) (now foreach_reverse range is too
dificult to understand it: item begins with 10 or 9, ends 1 or 2?)
will not require an explanation of their actions. Thanks.
I can say from personal experience that this is true.
1-based indexing is also easier for beginners.
So are BASIC and LOGO.
You may notice a trend here... :P
Inclusive ranges are easier for naive programmers to grok, but are
fundamentally mismatched to programming. It's harder to split an
inclusive range, and it complicates the math. Just try writing anything
which involves manipulating ranges in Lua; it's considerably harder than
with exclusive ranges.
The question is which you would rather: help naive programmers work
inefficiently or prevent competent programmers from working efficiently?
I say screw the beginners; learning will do them good.
Besides, when learning programming the concept of zero-based indexing and
exclusive ranges is amongst the most trivial of concerns you need worry
about these days.
On the other hand indeed foreach_reverse is tricky and I bet it does the
wrong thing with floats. Actually let's see:
import std.stdio;
void main()
{
foreach_reverse (i; 0.7 .. 100.7)
{
write(i, " ");
}
}
The last number printed is -0.3. I think this has been discussed, but I
can't find a bugzilla about it.
Andrei
