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From: tenaglia@mis.mcw.edu (Chris Tenaglia - 257-8765)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.icon
Subject: Icon Ideas ?
Message-ID: <9003211825.AA06632@uwm.edu>
Date: 21 Mar 90 16:54:14 GMT
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I've noticed in the Icon Newsletter discussion of an object oriented version
of Icon (IDOL?). It makes use of the $ character. Somehow I can never quite
seem to comprehend this 'object oriented' stuff. It looks like kloojed
terminology.

But back to the $.

I wonder about the use of the $ to create user define operators. For example:

operation("$+",lst)
  case *lst of
    {
    1 : return &null                    # unary form not defined
    2 : return lst[1] || " " || lst[2]  # binary form ok
    }
  end

Later ...

a := b $+ c     # 'a' is 'b' appended with a space and then 'c'
d := $+e        # unary form should fail or be &null
x $+:= z        # augmented form appends blank and 'z' to 'x'

Is this a desirable 'feature' for Icon 8.2 or 9.0? Or would it be impractical?

Chris Tenaglia (System Manager)
Medical College of Wisconsin
8701 W. Watertown Plank Rd.
Milwaukee, WI 53226
(414)257-8765
tenaglia@mis.mcw.edu