Stupid little iota of an idea

[spir]

On 02/09/2011 09:09 PM, Daniel Gibson wrote:
> Am 09.02.2011 21:08, schrieb Ary Manzana:
>> On 2/9/11 3:54 PM, bearophile wrote:
>>> - There is no need to learn to use a function with a weird syntax like iota,
>>> coming from APL. This makes Phobos and learning D a bit simpler.
>>
>> I would recommend stop using "weird" names for functions. Sorry if this sounds a
>> little harsh but the only reason I see this function is called "iota" is to
>> demonstrate knowledge (or to sound cool). But programmers using a language don't
>> care about whether the other programmer demonstrates knowledge behind a function
>> name, they just want to get things done, fast.
>>
>> I mean, if I want to create a range of numbers I would search "range". "iota"
>> will never, ever come to my mind. D has to be more open to public, not only to
>> people who programmed in APL, Go or are mathematics freaks. Guess how a range is
>> called in Ruby? That's right, Range.
>>
>> Another example: retro. The documentation says "iterates a bidirectional name
>> backwards". Hm, where does "retro" appear in that text? If I want to iterate it
>> backwards, or to reverse the order, the first thing I would write is
>> reverse(range) or backwards(range), "retro" would never come to my mind.
>>
>> (and no, replies like "you can always alias xxx" are not accepted :-P)
>
> I agree that iota is a bad name, but "Range" is a bad name because it's already
> used in D.

Use "Interval". Actually better than range, because it's an international word 
(thus far easier for non-native English speakers). English very often provides 
2 words (typically one is germanic, the other imported); choose the 
international one when none is obviously better.

Denis
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