proposed syntax change

[Moritz Warning]

On Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:06:49 -0400, Paul D. Anderson wrote:

> I was browsing the Python spec yesterday and came across this
> interesting and useful syntax:
> 
> "/" (one slash) means floating point division, e.g. 5/2 = 2.5 even
> though 5 and 2 are integers
> 
> "//" (two slashes) means integer (floor) division, e.g. 5.0//2.0 = 2.0
> even though 5.0 and 2.0 are floats.
> 
> I've always been a little troubled by the standard division operator
> being dependent on the types of the operands. (I understand the need for
> it, I just didn't like it much.) Now here is an elegant (IMHO) solution.
> 
> It seems to me that this could be added to D with very little effort and
> would add a feature to the language.
> 
> Oh wait...I think "//" is used elsewhere. Well, we could still use it
> but mark it as a breaking change. Then users could simply remove all
> previous uses of "//" from their code. If they REALLY need to retain the
> old "//" functionality we could replace it with a new symbol. How about
> "--", like Ada? Oh wait...
> 
> I will also throw out (at no cost) a suggestion for the Python people:
> Why not make "/%" the divmod operator (returning the quotient and
> remainder)? It would return a tuple, but Python is used to that.
> 
> Paul

// has potential to be useful as an operator.
Maybe # would be a nice replacement.
Easier to type, used as comment in other languages and no apparent use as 
operator.
Imho, for D, to change the meaning for // might be too much of a breaking 
change.