On Wed, 29 May 2019 at 17:48, Theodore Brown <theodor...@outlook.com> wrote:
> On Wed, May 29, 2019 at 6:34 AM G. P. B. <george.bany...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > I share the same concerns as Rowan Collins > > From my reading of Rowan's email, he was making a general point that > new features can have a cost of added complexity for users. He then > clarified "I don't personally think that applies here". > > > I'm really not a fan of the RFC in general. Also I think those kind > > of magic numbers should be constants with meaningful names, and it > > that case you could just compute them by adding powers of ten. > > E.g. DISCOUNT_IN_CENTS = 1 * 10^5 + 3 * 10^4 + 5 * 10^3; > > Actually I think this example highlights why numeric literal > separators can be very helpful for improving readability and > preventing mistakes. First, which of these is faster to read? > > ```php > $discount = 1 * 10**5 + 3 * 10**4 + 5 * 10**3; > // or > $discount = 135_00; > ``` > > Secondly, your example of adding powers of 10 is off by an order > of magnitude! It's equivalent to $1,350.00, not $135.00, but this > isn't very obvious when reading the complex expression. > Oh well I suppose that'll teach me trying to write some code on my phone. Of course, if you prefer the first approach you can continue using it. > But personally I find the second approach quicker to read and less > prone to mistakes. > I mean I don't really use that as I personally don't have a problem counting digits nor do I use massive numbers. There are also other ways to go about it but that's not really the deal here. > Moreover I feel that people may misread numbers like that if people > > use different groupings. E.g. 1_0000_0000_0000; by skimming rapidly > > I could think it's a billion(10^6) when in reality it's a trillion > > (10^9). Even if maybe some countries are moving away from the > > grouping digits in groups of 4. > > Even with the different grouping, it's faster for me to count the > digits in that number than if it had no separator at all. > IMHO using a power of ten in this example would be the "best" solution. But like before that's not really the question here. > > I'll probably vote against it but that's only my opinion. > > That's up to you. But even if you don't personally have a need for > the feature, I think it's worth considering that there are valid use > cases for it which can help improve code readability and clarify intent. > I'm just fundamentally against it but if I'm in the minority it will pass and it's not like I'm going to make a fuss about it behind added to the language. Best regards George P. Banyard
