On Sat, Jan 16, 2021 at 6:21 AM Michael F. Stemper <mstem...@gmail.com> wrote: > Here's the status of the square root function in various languages, > in the order that I encountered them: > > FORTRAN Part of the language > Pascal Part of the language > SNOBOL Part of the language > c Need to #include <math.h> > clisp Part of the language > EcmaScript Part of the language > python Need to import from math > Java Need to import from java.math > > The four that appear to be in the most use currently are c, > EcmaScript, python, and Java. Of these, only EcmaScript has > Math.sqrt() as part of the language, and that could be partly > due to the fact that the language doesn't have any concept of > "import" or "include". >
Cool. Now tell me: Of all the languages that have a built-in global name SQRT (which does not include ECMAScript, and for the record, ES does have imports), how many of them have a built-in or syntax for dictionaries/mappings? I would put it to you that the ability to look up something by name in a tree, hashtable, or equivalent, is *at least* as useful as the ability to calculate a square root. Python gives you both (since you can raise something to the 0.5th power), JavaScript in a web browser gives you both, C gives you neither (you have to #include), and you can fill in the rest yourself. Languages differ. I don't see why it's so important to focus on just one thing - and to complain that, even though it's in the standard library, you have to use an import command to get it. ChrisA -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
