Why don't other programming languages have ranges?

[Walter Bright]

Jeff Nowakowski wrote:
> 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.

I talked to them. They had no knowledge of the analysis. But they did know how 
to install fire hydrants.


> 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.

Bah, one glance at the location would show it would be a standard install and 
all it would have cost was the xerox copy.