[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> I find it much easier to understand to call
> "123456" - the series, and
> 'a / 'b - indexes into the series
>
> To me this seems to show better the difference between actions on
> the index ('next, ...) and on the series (insert, ...)
>
A small qualm I have there is that (as in my previous post replying
to Elan's question) there can also be "anonymous" references with
their own independent "indexes". We'd need to be careful not to tie
the concept of "index" to the concept of "variable".
The other minor grumble is that "index" begs the question "into what".
In the non-REBOL example
n = 1;
a = x [n];
b = y [n];
it would be fairly common for n to be described as an index into
x and y. Since virtually the same thing can be written in REBOL:
n: 1
a: x/:n
b: y/:n
it would seem to be natural to say that 'n is being used as an
index, which is a different role than played by 'a and 'b in
a: next "123456"
b: next a
Those picky details aside, I've been using the terms "series" and
"sequence" to distinguish between the concepts of "postion within
a specific data collection" and "a data collection independent of
who is concerned with what position". Much of the energy, alas,
has gone into defending the claim that those two concepts are
distinct. If we could just agree that the CONCEPTS are distinct
and deserving of separate non-ambiguous names, I'll be happy to
take up what to call them as a separate (and lower-priority)
issue.
-jn-
