On 2002.07.08, Austin Ziegler <austin / halostatue.ca> wrote: > > C and C++ are very bad examples of this because they have > notoriously poor string handling. [...] You *expect* strings to act > like arrays because that's the way that C and C++ do it. I know this > is how C and C++ do this and curse it every time I have to deal with > C and C++ and strings. Exactly. > When quantum computers are common, then it might > actually be easier to deal with strings implemented as a hypercube > or something equally strange. Should users have to know that strings > are implemented as a hypercube? No. They should know that they are > Strings, and that's it. Amen. The fact that people are used to strings being implemented as an array of characters because they've worked with C or C++ is merely coincidence and a breakage that ought to be fixed in newer langauges that don't have the backward-compatibility issues that the older languages have. Coupling the higher-level object hierarchy to the machine's lower-level internal representation of the data structure is a limiting factor based on the implementation details. Bad bad bad. -- Dossy -- Dossy Shiobara mail: dossy / panoptic.com Panoptic Computer Network web: http://www.panoptic.com/ "He realized the fastest way to change is to laugh at your own folly -- then you can let go and quickly move on." (p. 70)