On Tue, Jan 15, 2008 at 12:15:23PM -0600, Peter da Silva wrote: > On 2008-01-15, at 10:03, David Cantrell wrote: > >Then stop calling them version NUMBERS. > >While you, and other people, continue to do so, then people will > >assume that "hey, it's a number" and "I can do numbery things with > >it". > If a programmer thinks that just because something's a number that > means you can do "numbery things" with it, they need remedial training.
Given that it's a *version* *number*, adding them, multiplying them, and so on, obviously aren't useful. But comparing them clearly is useful. If you think that I need "remedial training" because I think that comparing 1.03 and 1.02 might be useful - well, then let's just say that I have a different view of who needs remedial training. What you need remedial training in though, I'm not sure. > Neither in mathematics nor in programming are numbers "just numbers" > in the colloquial sense of "number" as a linguist might use the > term... though I suspect that there's a linguistic use of the word > "number" as well. In programming, neither integers nor floating point > numbers are well-ordered in all circumstances. In mathematics, many > numbers are not well-ordered in ANY circumstances. In particular, you > have to define an ordering on n-tuples. Now you're being ridiculous. You might use version numbers larger than MAXINT, but thankfully normal people don't. > >>> "Yeah, that's nice and all, but > >>>wouldn't it be great if nothing made any fucking sense and I took a > >>>whiz all > >>>over your UNIVERSAL methods? Yeah. Open wider and stop gaggig, > >>>bitch." > >>Where "universal methods" means "a hateful bloody stupid idea that > >>pretty much only Perl actually uses". > >Wrong. [snip explanation] > OK, let's pretend for a minute that I wasn't aware that "universal > method" was a technical term in Perl. I assumed that you commented on it because you thought you had a clue what you were talking about. -- David Cantrell | A machine for turning tea into grumpiness PERL: Politely Expressed Racoon Love
