Re: Unary operators, was Re: Definable operators

Tony Finch <fanf@lspace.org> writes:
>I don't really see a big problem, so long as the restrictions imposed
>by the language designers are sensible and understandable, and the
>programmers don't go overboard with their freedom and define prefix
>plus to convert its argument to an IP address and launch Netscape.


While I have never wanted to do THAT <g>, I have always felt that
since unary - is used for arithmetic negation, that unary + should be
used for absolute value. In the "traditional" sense, unary + applied
to a number doesn't change the value at all. And, if applied to a
literal (which is not already prefixed with unary -), unary + as \
absolute value does the same thing. But when applied to a variable it
is very useful.


I don't know of any language that does this, but on the other hand
I also don't know of many people that seriously use unary + for
anything other than applied directly to a literal to contrast with a
unary -, for example -23 and +23. Those uses would not change.
[Yuck. That certainly violates the principle of trying to use
operators for their familiar meaning rather than something else.
We've had ABS(X) for forty years and |x| for a century, I'd let
sleeping values lie. -John]


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