Re: aset/aref for char-tables, range-tables etc.

Ben Wing <ben(a)xemacs.org&gt; writes: >well, but how do you think the extension from [] = array to [] = hash >tables, etc. came about? by the exact process of semantic extension. >whether is what "there at the beginning of python" is irrelevant since >python extended this notation from other languages, > > That it was there at the beginning is exactly relevant to my point, which is that Python *introduced* that notation from the start, it didn't extend it from array access. I agree that it is extended in the sense that the operator was borrowed from other languages where it denoted array access. However, a syntactic shorthand is useful for that kind of thing because it denotes a function without naming it "array". (Python does use names for its methods, and then it's called get/set-item.) I believe that "aref" stands for "array reference" and that the name is a bad one outside the array context. I don't have a really good alternative name handy; maybe I would call it "item". In that case it should be setfable and support CL-style keyword arguments such as :start and :end for slices. >>>char tables are indexed by character and nothing else, but can take >>>a charset or something similar as a shorthand for setting a value >>>for all chars in the charset. range tables are very similar but you >>>can set ranges of integers instead of charsets. >>> >>> >>Then I wouldn't really say that they are good candidates for >>aset/aref, in an "API design" sort of way. But if you feel they're >>good for compatibility, go ahead and put them in; I won't complain. >> >> >> >> >what makes them not good? the fact that they can take objects other >than integers as set arguments? > > The fact that they don't look up values using an integer index, the way an array does.

>btw i semantically extended `get' from symbol properties to general >properties, and you seemed to like it. > > In that case the name `get' at least didn't imply a symbol argument. On the other hand, `symbol-plist' does, which is why I assume `object-plist' was introduced.