container stuff

[Pelle]

On 05/26/2010 11:44 AM, bearophile wrote:
> Andrei A.:
>
>> I hope to work with ranges only.<
>
> Programming life is complex, you can't fit all of it in one schema ("A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds").
>

Couldn't you just define opApply where you need it and it will be used 
where foreach is used by default, anyway?

>
>> Will look into it, sounds like an implementation matter.<
>
> Yes, right. But to implement this idea the foreach() has to change a bit, to set the flag in nonrelease mode. If implemented this idea lessens a bit the need for the stable ("soft") methods.
>
>
>> Probably some trees could save some state if they exploit O(log n) length.<
>
> In general a length can be O(n) if for example you want to compute it on a linked list that doesn't keep the number of items inserted. Are you going to just not give a length attribute for such linked lists (so users have to use something like walkLength)?
>

Isn't that a good thing? If I know length is fast, I can use it without 
worries, but if it might be O(n) you need to avoid it.