Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!ames!hao!oddjob!gargoyle!ihnp4!ihuxy!lied
From: lied@ihuxy.ATT.COM (Bob Lied)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.icon
Subject: Substring positions
Keywords: positions like pointers
Message-ID: <2321@ihuxy.ATT.COM>
Date: 25 Dec 87 00:31:22 GMT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois
Lines: 18

I've finally gotten enough spare time to take a
look at ICON, and I have a novice question (please
don't hit me).  In an example and a solution in
chapter 5 of the book (I assume you know the book
I refer to), the size of a substring is calculated
with
	*line[i:j]
where I would intuitively expect to use
	i-j

I am inferring from this that string positions are
like other languages' pointers in that their numerical
values are not to be trusted, and I should limit their
use to assignments, comparisons, and defined operations
like subscripting.  Am I right?

	Bob Lied	ihnp4!ihuxy!lied
	AT&T Bell Laboratories