Why don't other programming languages have ranges?

[Jeff Nowakowski]

On 08/01/2010 02:35 AM, Walter Bright wrote:
> BCS wrote:
>>> I once had a fire hydrant installed on my property. The city required
>>> an engineering analysis, which ran to quite a stack of paper. After
>>> approval, the workers came by to install it. They never looked at the
>>> analysis, or even the drawings, they just dug up the water main and
>>> stuck a hydrant on it with a specialized tool they had. Done in an
>>> hour or so.
>> I'd almost bet that buried somewhere in the fine print of the
>> "engineering analysis" was the assertion "the standard way works" or
>> the same things in 10 times the words.
>
>
> It was painfully obvious that this was nothing more than a money-making
> scheme for the water utility. It colluded with the city to get those
> regs written, so they could literally quintuple the cost of a hydrant
> install and one had no choice but pay.

It's possible that's the reason. Then again, regulations are often in 
response to an accident. You also make a big deal about them not looking 
at the analysis. Couldn't they have already seen a copy before they went 
to the site? This is obviously planned work, so you'd think they'd have 
a meeting beforehand.

As BCS said, if the stack of paper is due diligence with the conclusion 
"the standard way works", I don't see how you can tell from your experience.