Stupid little iota of an idea

[Christopher Nicholson-Sauls]

On 02/11/11 19:36, Daniel Gibson wrote:
> Am 12.02.2011 02:25, schrieb bearophile:
>> Michel Fortin:
>>
>>> No one noticed yet that the a..b:c syntax causes ambiguity? Tell me, 
>>> how do you rewrite this using the new proposed syntax:
>>>
>>> 	auto aa = [iota(a, b, c): 1, iota(d, e): 2];
>>
>> Right, that's why in another post I have said that syntax replaces most iota usages. There are some situations where you can't use it well. This is another situation I've shown in the enhancement request:
>> iota(10.,20.)
>> Writing it like this is not sane:
>>  10...20.
>>
>>
>>> Interval is clear only as long as there's no step value mentioned. 
>>> Having a step value is quite a stretch from the usual notion of an 
>>> interval.
>>
>> Right, but I think it's acceptable still, and better than iota.
>>
>>
>>> I like a lot so's suggestion "walk". I'm not sure it's much clearer 
>>> than iota though.
>>
>> It's better than iota, but not by much.
>>
>> Bye,
>> bearophile
> 
> I think it's much better. Even having "steps" (or a stepsize) is obvious with walk.
> 
> iota only makes sense when you know this from other languages/libraries or if
> your native spoken language has a similar word that can be somehow connected.
> http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/iota doesn't give a real connection (and two
> English->German dictionaries I've checked don't either - one only listed iota as
> the greek letter, the other had mentions about something tiny) - it's just
> something small like that greek i-without-a-dot letter.
> There's nothing that connects it to a range of values with a fixed step size.
> 
> Cheers,
> - Daniel

We have a related usage around here, but it's probably a local thing
(western Kentucky).  I grew up hearing "iota" as a word for the
shortest/smallest distance/difference between two things, or
(indirectly) the frequency of a thing.

Not really an argument in favor of the name, mind you; but the usage had
to originate from *somewhere* and so I submit that it has probably never
been "official" but yet common at various times and places.

-- Chris N-S