I'll chip in and point out that the implicit conversion caused significant hiccups in figuring out the offsets issues -- several people (including me) were fooled by the fact that conversion to UTF-32 results in binary data, but can be transparently treated as text. Or maybe I'm mistaken/misremembering, which reinforces the fact that it's confusing. :-)
On Tue, Nov 20, 2018 at 10:25 AM Ben Rubinstein via use-livecode < use-livecode@lists.runrev.com> wrote: > This isn't about strongly typed variables though, but about when (correct) > conversion is possible. > > LC throws an error if you implicitly ask it to convert the wrong kind of > string to a number - for example, add 45 to "horse". (Obviously > multiplication > is fine: the answer would be "45 horses".) > > LC throws an error if you implicitly ask it convert the wrong kind of > string > or number to a colour: try setting the backcolor of a control to "horse". > > LC throws an error if asked to convert a number, or the wrong kind of > string, > to a boolean: try setting the hilite of a button to 45. > > In all these cases, LC knows it cannot do the right thing, so it throws an > error to tell you so, rather than guessing, for example, what the truth > value > of "45" is. > > I'm just suggesting that it cannot know how to correctly convert binary > data > into a string - so it should throw an error rather than possibly > (probably?) > do the wrong thing. > > > On 20/11/2018 17:55, Mark Wieder via use-livecode wrote: > > On 11/20/18 8:33 AM, Ben Rubinstein via use-livecode wrote: > > > >> Would it not be better to refuse to make an assumption, i.e. require an > >> explicit conversion? > > > > While I'd love to have the option of strongly typed variables at the > scripting > > level, I know better than to expect that this will ever happen. > > > > _______________________________________________ > use-livecode mailing list > use-livecode@lists.runrev.com > Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your > subscription preferences: > http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode > _______________________________________________ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode