Re: When is "z" != "z" ?

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On Tue, 2006-06-06 at 00:01, Martin Alterisio wrote:
> > Because defining ++ and < and > in such a way as to make them "behave like
> > numbers" would have made them not work for alphabetizing.  A string is a
> > string, and comparison of strings is alphabetic (for some definition of
> > alphabet).  It's more useful to deal with strings as strings than to make
> > them quack like numbers.
> >
> 
> Then, if it's not a math operation, why use a math operator for such
> functionality? In which way is the ++ operator that generates a string

I don't ever remember seeing ++ in math class. I do remember seeing it
in lots of computer classes and to that end it was "just an operator"
with whatever semantic meaning was applied to it for a given language. I
guess it's usually to increment an integer, but that's just "in
general". I mean if we want to get into "math" operators being used for
string purposes, then we should look at how many languages use the "+"
operator to concatenate two strings -- by your accounts they should
treat their operands as integers and do a rote addition.

> sequence, useful enough to justify the formal inconsistency between the math
> operators? I still don't see the advantages of having the ++ recognize the
> string as a sequence, and generate the next item in the sequence. I believe
> those decisions should be left to the coder, because he knows what the
> string really represents and which kind of sequence is being used.

In C++ they do leave it to the coder, and well, we all know what a mess
it can be deciphering overloaded operators in C++ (or maybe we ALL
don't). At any rate, the PHP overlords made a choice, and IMHO the best
choice. For such a fringe issue I don't see what the argument is all
about. If you want the functionality you get in C by incrementing a
char, then use the chr() function on an integer.

Cheers,
Rob.
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