I know I'm stuck with it, but I wish there was a preference that I could tick. Sometimes I even wish I was actually good at C so I could take the source and fix it.
No, wait. Maybe I can fund forking it just for the sake of fixing that one thing. On Thu, Aug 8, 2013 at 6:39 PM, Richard Gaskin <ambassa...@fourthworld.com>wrote: > That was some damn fine writing, my friend. > > There's too much code floating around for the delimiter behavior to > change, but your most excellent post earned you a dinner next time you're > in LA, or at RevLive in San Diego next year. It would be my pleasure. > > Yep, xTalk is sometimes funky, like the rest of the imperfect world in > which it was born. > > But like any language, it's the community that makes a language great - > and I'm glad you're in this one. > > > -- > Richard Gaskin > Fourth World > LiveCode training and consulting: http://www.fourthworld.com > Webzine for LiveCode developers: http://www.LiveCodeJournal.com > Follow me on Twitter: > http://twitter.com/**FourthWorldSys<http://twitter.com/FourthWorldSys> > > > Mike Kerner wrote: > > We also had this debate on several bug reports at quality.runrev.com, so >> you will find much of this hashed out over there, over several bug >> reports. Excuse me while I wax extemporaneously for a moment. >> >> >> My fellow LiveCoders, I implore you, to reach within your souls and ask >> yourselves, are not all commas created equal? Is a naked comma on front >> of >> a list somehow more important than the lowly little one on the back? Are >> you so jaded by the unwashed masses of C# hackers trying to convince you >> that if your language doesn't have a ++ operator it isn't worthy? No! It >> is a sophisticated, verbose, beautiful and easy-to-read language that will >> not allow such abominations as "this me" to exist without a fight. It is >> a >> language that has survived almost thirty years and has maintained that >> pure, amazing quality that is lacking from almost every other language >> that >> has evolved over that time - it is not a write-only language. It wants to >> be read. it wants to be updated and modernized. It doesn't require >> anywhere near the number of comments or hacks or tweaks, because so much >> of >> it is self-explanatory. >> >> In light of that, I say to you that it is a language that should not count >> an empty item on the front of a list while ignoring the one in the back. >> We are not those people. We are better than that. We are not so steeped >> in tradition and the foibles of those who came before us that we leave >> them >> alone like they are sacred, because the code they wrote on their >> black-and-white Mac Pluses, when HyperCard came on a stack of 3-1/2" >> disks, >> is somehow more important than the code we write now. >> >> If someone brand new comes to this list - someone who has never used >> LiveCode, or Runtime Revolution, or SuperCard, or HyperCard or any of the >> other children or grandchildren of Bill Adkinson - if someone brand new, >> who does not value legacy over sanctimony comes to this list, and you >> explain to them what a container is, what empty is, what an itemDelimiter >> is, and how these tools laugh in the face of type declarations, and show >> them ",a", and ask them "How many items does that string contain?", what >> would they say? If after they answer, and you show them "a," and ask them >> the same question, what would they answer then? >> >> Why is it that we treat the items in our lists like they are schleps in a >> queue to throw down their hard-earned Benjamins for a Taylor Swift >> concert? Do we not believe in equality? Do we really believe that "a," >> and ",a" are different? No. Today I say to you that every item was >> created equal - even the last one. Our past is imperfect, but our future >> can be. Why is it that an empty item anywhere in a list matters, unless >> it >> is at the end? It does matter. It is significant. It must be counted. >> >> For my part, I frequently run into this issue when I am working with >> databases and LiveCode. "SELECT name, address1, address2" is one example >> where the developer is begging for trouble, because the last item may very >> well be empty, and therefore not worthy of counting. Yet that is not >> nearly as horrible as what would happen if I were to INSERT or UPDATE >> using >> a list, either from a dataGrid or a container. The errors returned are an >> open sore that remind you that not all items are created equal. Not all >> items are significant. Not all items deserved to be counted. >> >> If we are to continue with this deep, age-old injustice, then I say to you >> that the Scots must fix every other command that might somehow be affected >> by a blank lasty, and ensure that we are not reminded that trailing blank >> items even exist. The database functions, when faced with "SELECT name, >> address1, address2" should return an extra comma on the end of the results >> when address2 is blank, because even though they do not want to face an >> empty last item, I must be on the watch for them, lest the "INSERT" that >> follows breaks my app and leaves me to gnash my teeth on the bitter taste >> of being so close, and yet so far. >> >> >> So, in closing, I simply ask you to say it with me now: >> >> "Every comma is significant, even the last one." >> >> -- >> On the first day, God created the heavens and the Earth >> On the second day, God created the oceans. >> On the third day, God put the animals on hold for a few hours, >> and did a little diving. >> And God said, "This is good." >> > > > ______________________________**_________________ > use-livecode mailing list > use-livecode@lists.runrev.com > Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your > subscription preferences: > http://lists.runrev.com/**mailman/listinfo/use-livecode<http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode> > -- On the first day, God created the heavens and the Earth On the second day, God created the oceans. On the third day, God put the animals on hold for a few hours, and did a little diving. And God said, "This is good." _______________________________________________ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
