It doesn’t seem very PoLS to have it reordered, although perhaps one
shouldn’t be surprised that a hash is unordered? Perhaps Matz is
convincing us of this statement? Said Matz unto the flock in a loud,
Godly voice: “Make no assumptions about the order of hashes!”
“This is a bold statement, especially from a self proclaimed newbie.
You’re suggesting that the only reason that people accept that hash
elements are unordered is because Matz says so and we’re just blindly
believe him without checking up on these ideas, ourselves.”
That’s not what I meant. As to whether it is reasonable for you to
keep misinterpreting me, well…?
What I meant by all of that which you quoted is the same as what I
meant by the lesser amount I subsequently quoted, since I was saying
that in Ruby, Matz was CORRECTLY representing what is a reasonable
expectation of hashes and that therefore my expectation was probably
incorrect. There is no dishonesty or contradiction.
And if there was a contradiction on my part and I quoted that bit
which was supportive of it not being a bold statement and I didn’t
quote the bit for which it was more supportive of it being a bold
statement, then by default I can’t have made a bold statement anyway,
since each would be inconsistent with and undermine the other.
Ironically enough you’ve contradicted yourself!
And again you misinterpret insofar as my having called myself a
newbie, when I didn’t say that either. Being rusty, or somewhat
experienced in one thing does not a newbie make. Nor do I care; I
simply don’t care if one is a newbie or not. I allow for anyone to be
smart and everyone to be stupid.
“That’s exactly the problem. Because expectations are so subjective,
it’s unreasonable to say “hey, I’m surprised!” and declare that the
PoLS
was broken.”
If I were to agree with that then I would have no opinions about
anything. Regardless of the distinction between having an unmet
expectation and expressing that unmet expecation, then I’d still
disagree with either one as being a reasonable basis for being
dismissive of my own reactions as being PoLS or not as I see it.
Furthermore, and I have to say it again, I never said that PoLS was
broken. I asked if it was; I suggested that it might be, but clearly
expressed doubt as to whether it was. Still, even if I had. So? I
can expect anything I like can’t I? What makes sense for me maybe
doesn’t make sense for you. Discussion ensues and so on.
What it appears you are really saying is that it is unreasonable for
ME to be surprised because I’m a dickhead. Or, did I misinterpret
you?
“Who’s to say why you were surprised or objectively say if your
surprise was “reasonable” or not.”
Matz? Yeah, Matz. He’s ultimately the arbiter of style and
expectation. He’s done pretty well so far and I’m happy to go with
him quite a long way.
Also, to whomever said that that I had said or implied as much, I
never
made the claim that Matz had used the term PoLS. I may have made
that
claim, given or having taken the opportunity to do so, but I haven’t.
“No one said that you said this.
I was saying that even Matz doesn’t use this term to describe his own
language, so you might think twice about doing so…”
OK, I’ll think twice about doing so if I have ever have that thought.
If you mean use of the term at all, then I think it is in common
enough usage in relation to Ruby for me to use it as something by
which we can assess our expectations—Matz having uttered this or
not. Although PoLS is on his blog! See
Matzにっき(2006-06-01). Although my Japanese
is almost non-existant, so I don’t know what it says. He could have
written that it’s nonsense…? Also see
http://wiki.rubygarden.org/Ruby/page/show/PoLS.
Additionally, that page is something which informs the following:
I am not inclined to ‘dumb down’ Ruby. If I wanted to be
straight-jacketed or kept out of the drawer with all the sharp
knives,
then I’d be using Python. (That there IS a bold statement.)
“I have no idea what this paragraph means.”
It simply means that Ruby shouldn’t cater for ill-informed ideas that
Hash will necessarily order. I want a sportscar, not a factory pimped
saloon. I want something that has brevity and a little bit of danger.
Fly close to the sun or don’t fly at all?
My understanding is that Python is more restrictive insofar as poking
around in the internals at runtime is concerned and is weaker on
introspection, and I think it is mooted that much of its Lispyness
will be curtailed. I don’t want to go back to Logo. If I want safe
I’ll go back to the little turtles.
So, does my expectation remain contradictory to the need for the
naturalness requirement of PoLS? I’m not sure. Naturalness itself is
subjective. Maybe some people like s-expressions? I sure did with
Lisp. Was it natural though? No. Although I suppose it could have
been given more time with it. (See next listemail…)
“What gave you this idea, by the way?”
The term hash is sometimes used interchangably with the concept of
associative array. At least I thought it was. And given some of the
other listemails I think that claim could be supported. Does anyone
else think that we need to tighten up our nomenclature? (See next
listemail…)
Still, you seem to keep claiming that I had this expectation when I
didn’t. I suppose I’m saying that I can be surprised by something
without having it known to me that I will have a certain expecation
because I had a heretofore unrealised expectation. It only became a
possible to have a conscious expectation until after I was surprised.
I never claimed that it shouldn’t be this way. I asked if it should
be other than it is.
I’m considering having a .sig. Which do you like?..
— If it’s not beautiful, then it’s not right.
— Some people should stick to programming languages. Natural
language seems to stretch them.
— One man’s bug is another man’s feature.
Anyway, enough crap stuffing people’s mailboxes. Let’s stop the
meta-meta-discussion and cut some code.