"Max Samukha" <maxsamu...@spambox.com> wrote in message news:ij10n7$25p0$1...@digitalmars.com... > On 02/10/2011 05:18 PM, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote: >> On 2/10/11 12:30 AM, Olivier Pisano wrote: >>> Le 09/02/2011 21:08, Ary Manzana a écrit : >>>> On 2/9/11 3:54 PM, bearophile wrote: >>>>> - There is no need to learn to use a function with a weird syntax like >>>>> iota, coming from APL. This makes Phobos and learning D a bit simpler. >>>> >>>> I would recommend stop using "weird" names for functions. Sorry if this >>>> sounds a little harsh but the only reason I see this function is called >>>> "iota" is to demonstrate knowledge (or to sound cool). But programmers >>>> using a language don't care about whether the other programmer >>>> demonstrates knowledge behind a function name, they just want to get >>>> things done, fast. >>>> >>>> I mean, if I want to create a range of numbers I would search "range". >>>> "iota" will never, ever come to my mind. D has to be more open to >>>> public, not only to people who programmed in APL, Go or are mathematics >>>> freaks. Guess how a range is called in Ruby? That's right, Range. >>>> >>>> Another example: retro. The documentation says "iterates a >>>> bidirectional >>>> name backwards". Hm, where does "retro" appear in that text? If I want >>>> to iterate it backwards, or to reverse the order, the first thing I >>>> would write is reverse(range) or backwards(range), "retro" would never >>>> come to my mind. >>>> >>>> (and no, replies like "you can always alias xxx" are not accepted :-P) >>> >>> Hi, >>> >>> I agree iota is a bad name. >> >> Fifth result of simply googling the entire Web for "iota": >> >> http://www.sgi.com/tech/stl/iota.html >> >> >> Andrei > > Google search takes your preferences into account. They must be tracking > your search history, peeking into your gmail accounts etc. I searched for > 'iota' and couldn't find the STL link on the first 5 pages.
Yea, it's definitely user-specific. It's on the thrid page for me. But the second result on the first page is the Wikipedia page for "Iota" which mentions the following meanings: - A greek letter - A small amount - "Imaginary" constant - The "definite descriptor" (symbolic logic). - The unit vector (but generally with a superscribed caret) The only reference on the page to a sequence of integers is in direct reference to APL (which is kind of obsure outside numerical-computation) and *ahem* "Issue 9" (which isn't exactly a fountain of good ideas to be stolen). Additionally, keep in mind that on that SGI/STL page, it states "This function is an SGI extension; it is not part of the C++ standard". So it's not even C++ or STL at all, it's a non-standard SGI extension (And is SGI stuff even used anymore anyway? Do they even exist as what we know "SGI" as being anymore?).