Stupid little iota of an idea

[spir]

On 02/12/2011 02:36 AM, 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.

That page looks listing various meanings in foreign languages, but mostly 
stincks with the greek letter; it does not mention any sense everday sense iota 
actually has. Example fro fr.wiktionary:

# Nom de ι, Ι, neuvième lettre et quatrième voyelle de l’alphabet grec. 
Équivalent du i latin.
# Petite quantité négligeable, presque rien.

Free translation: little negligible quantity, nearly nothing.
There are good chances iota has a similar meaning in numerous languages, 
especially romance ones. Bearophile, Andrei?

Denis
-- 
_________________
vita es estrany
spir.wikidot.com