NICE Eiffel Standards Group -- Library Committee Mailing List To post to list: NICE-ESG-Libs@atlanta.twr.com To send mail to the Chairman of the committee: NICE-ESG-Libs-chair@atlanta.twr.com Administrative matters (sign up, unsubscribe, mail problems, etc): NICE-ESG-Libs-request@atlanta.twr.com
Date: Mon, 5 Jun 95 13:44:33 PDT From: bertrand@vienna.eiffel.com (Bertrand Meyer) Subject: NICE-ESG-Libs Digest V1 #234 To: NICE-ESG-Libs@atlanta.twr.com To Steve Tynor: I fixed the obsolete indexing entry of HASHABLE. Thanks for pointing this out. For "^" my understanding is that we were moving this discussion to vintage 96. I spent a couple of hours looking at the issue this morning. It is clear that we need two exponentiation operators: a general one and one for integer exponents. But the basic operator "^" should be for the general one. I can't see how to justify the use of a very general operator for what is defined as an optimization for special cases. I am also worried that not enough thought has gone into this point, as evidenced by the absence of spell checking (``invertable''). Perhaps we can discuss this in New York. To Steve Fisher: Your concerns are understandable but I think most of us agree that some standard is better than no standard. Vintage 95 represents the common basis on which the vendors agree (I hope the "^" matter, the only remaining exception is resolved within the next couple of days). It is not the final word for eternity. To Frieder: I am willing to take a bet that at least some of the features removed from STRING will be brought back in later on under user pressure. Best regards, -- BM
