Re: Understanding a repeat loop (strings/characters)
Re: Understanding a repeat loop (strings/characters)
- Subject: Re: Understanding a repeat loop (strings/characters)
- From: "Daniel A. Shockley" <email@hidden>
- Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 23:26:16 -0500
Let's think about things from this point of view. The "piece of
string" metaphor is a bad one. The smallest unit a string is hard to
measure: at what point is it no longer a "piece of string" but a bit
of carbonaceous matter? An AppleScript string is, however, a bunch of
characters joined together. That's what a word, paragraph, or
whatever is in real life. Saying that a single character is an item
of a string is the most accurate thing.
Using "text items" allows you to specify what you consider a "text
item" to be, but a single character is the inherent "item" of a
string. A character is a single quanta of a string. Any other
interpretation depends, as you say, on context.
As I am sure Has and others will attest to, I don't consider the ability to
get an "item" of a string (returning a character) a feature. Again, because
it exposes the ugliness of C strings. And since the synonymous expression
"character" already exists, "item" then becomes superfluous. And if "item"
is then up for grabs, why not make it synonymous with "text item" -- a
user-definable, dynamic, and truly useful term?
How long is a piece of string?
Is it 3 feet?
Is it 36 inches?
Is it half a spool?
Or is it 34,567 individual fibres?
The best answer should obviously depend on the context.
--
----
Daniel A. Shockley
email@hidden
email@hidden
http://www.danshockley.com
_______________________________________________
applescript-users mailing list | email@hidden
Help/Unsubscribe/Archives:
http://www.lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/applescript-users
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.