Rant after trying Rust a bit

[Max Samukha via Digitalmars-d]

On Thursday, 6 August 2015 at 06:54:45 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
> On 8/3/2015 2:19 AM, Max Samukha wrote:
>> The point is that '+' for string concatenation is no more of 
>> an 'idiot thing'
>> than '~'.
>
> Sure it is. What if you've got:
>
>    T add(T)(T a, T b) { return a + b; }
>
> and some idiot overloaded + for T to be something other than 
> addition?

That is a general problem with structural typing. Why not assume 
that if a type defines 'length', it must be a range? Then call an 
idiot everyone who defines it otherwise. I admit that special 
treatment of '+' is justified by its long history, but 'idiot 
thing' is obviously out of place.

BTW, it happens that '+' does not always have to be commutative: 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-ring
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordinal_arithmetic#Addition