On Monday, 7 February 2022 at 23:38:11 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
Andrei once asked me for scientific evidence that negations are
cognitively more difficult for human brains to understand. I
didn't have it at the time, but did eventually find it and
forwarded it to Andrei, who was satisfied with it. I didn't
keep a copy, though.
It's not just my opinion that negations are to be avoided,
there's research justifying it.
..
I certainly don't discount such research.
However, I expect there is also research that says something
different ;-)
Also, I expect you're talking about linguistics, and not
programming languages. Truths may hold in one, and not other.
Regardless, the research I am familiar with, tells me that we are
psychologically biased towards cognitive schemas that we already
hold.
Changing ones cognitive schemas is not effortless, and, since D
is very much focused on attracting programmers from the C++
world, the existing schemas those users hold should always be
factored into ones thinking when implementing change in D.
