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Groups > comp.lang.python > #21044

Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade!New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade!

From Rainer Weikusat <rweikusat@mssgmbh.com>
Newsgroups comp.lang.lisp, comp.emacs, comp.lang.python, comp.lang.perl.misc
Subject Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade!New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade!
Date 2012-02-29 15:15 +0000
Message-ID <87aa41k6x5.fsf@sapphire.mobileactivedefense.com> (permalink)
References <0078bbfb-5dfc-48fc-af1a-69de3cf15c3e@b1g2000yqb.googlegroups.com>

Cross-posted to 4 groups.

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Xah Lee <xahlee@gmail.com> writes:
> A excerpt from the new book 〈Modern Perl〉, just published, chapter 4
> on “Operators”. Quote:
>
> «The associativity of an operator governs whether it evaluates from
> left to right or right to left. Addition is left associative, such
> that 2 + 3 + 4 evaluates 2 + 3 first, then adds 4 to the result.
> Exponentiation is right associative, such that 2 ** 3 ** 4 evaluates 3
> ** 4 first, then raises 2 to the 81st power. »
>
> LOL. Looks like the perl folks haven't changed. Fundamentals of
> serious math got botched so badly.
>
> Let me explain the idiocy.
>
> It says “The associativity of an operator governs whether it evaluates
> from left to right or right to left.”. Ok, so let's say we have 2
> operators: a white triangle △ and a black triangle ▲. Now, by the
> perl's teaching above, let's suppose the white triangle is “right
> associative” and the black triangle is “left associative”. Now, look
> at this:
>
> 3 △ 6 ▲ 5
>
> seems like the white and black triangles are going to draw a pistol
> and fight for the chick 6 there. LOL.

As the perlop manpage would have told you,

	Operator associativity defines what happens if a sequence of the same
	operators is used one after another

Since this is not the case in your example, it doesn't seem to be
applicable here. Also, the Perl I'm aware doesn't have 'white
triangle' and 'black triangle' operators and it also doesn't have
operators of equal precedence and different associativity. It can't,
actually, since there would be no way to evaluate an expression like
the mock one you invented above. Lastly, that something happens to be 
in one way or another way in the completely arbitrary set of rules and
conventions commonly referred to as 'mathematics' (an essentially
outdated write-only programming language dating back to the times
when humans had to perform computations themselves) doesn't mean it is
of any relevance anywhere else just because of this, no matter how
dear it might be to lots of people.

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New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade!New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade! Xah Lee <xahlee@gmail.com> - 2012-02-29 00:09 -0800
  Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade!New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade! Chiron <chiron613@gmail.com> - 2012-02-29 11:43 +0000
    Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade!New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade! Devin Jeanpierre <jeanpierreda@gmail.com> - 2012-02-29 07:12 -0500
    Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Detracters Remain Idiots After A Decade! Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz <spamtrap@library.lspace.org.invalid> - 2012-02-29 23:06 -0500
      Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Detracters Remain Idiots After A Decade! Chiron <chiron613@gmail.com> - 2012-03-01 04:52 +0000
        Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Detracters Remain Idiots After A Decade! Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz <spamtrap@library.lspace.org.invalid> - 2012-03-01 10:07 -0500
  Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade!New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade! Kiuhnm <kiuhnm03.4t.yahoo.it> - 2012-02-29 13:08 +0100
    Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade!New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade! Xah Lee <xahlee@gmail.com> - 2012-02-29 16:02 -0800
      Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade!New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade! Kiuhnm <kiuhnm03.4t.yahoo.it> - 2012-03-01 12:00 +0100
        Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade!New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade! Xah Lee <xahlee@gmail.com> - 2012-03-02 05:12 -0800
          Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade!New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade! Kiuhnm <kiuhnm03.4t.yahoo.it> - 2012-03-02 15:15 +0100
  Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade!New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade! Rainer Weikusat <rweikusat@mssgmbh.com> - 2012-02-29 15:15 +0000
    Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade!New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade! Kiuhnm <kiuhnm03.4t.yahoo.it> - 2012-02-29 17:18 +0100
    Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade!New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots Af Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz <spamtrap@library.lspace.org.invalid> - 2012-02-29 23:10 -0500
      Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade!New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots Af Chiron <chiron613@gmail.com> - 2012-03-01 05:07 +0000
        Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade!New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots Af Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz <spamtrap@library.lspace.org.invalid> - 2012-03-01 10:13 -0500
          Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade!New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots Af Chiron <chiron613@gmail.com> - 2012-03-02 14:17 +0000
            Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Detractors Remain Idiots After A Decade! Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz <spamtrap@library.lspace.org.invalid> - 2012-03-02 10:53 -0500
              Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Detractors Remain Idiots After A Decade! Chiron <chiron613@gmail.com> - 2012-03-02 19:06 +0000
        Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade!New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots Af Devin Jeanpierre <jeanpierreda@gmail.com> - 2012-03-01 16:58 -0500
      Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade!New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots Af Rainer Weikusat <rweikusat@mssgmbh.com> - 2012-03-01 14:40 +0000
        Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade!New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots Af Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz <spamtrap@library.lspace.org.invalid> - 2012-03-01 16:11 -0500
  Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade!New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade! namekuseijin <namekuseijin@gmail.com> - 2012-02-29 09:45 -0800
  Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade!New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade! Westley Martínez <anikom15@gmail.com> - 2012-03-01 16:46 -0800
  Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade!New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade! Chiron <chiron613@gmail.com> - 2012-03-02 07:27 +0000
  Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade!New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade! Albert van der Horst <albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl> - 2012-03-12 11:27 +0000
    Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Detractors Remain Idiots After A Decade Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz <spamtrap@library.lspace.org.invalid> - 2012-03-12 08:40 -0400
      Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Detractors Remain Idiots After A Decade Raymond Wiker <raw@unknown-00-23-6c-8d-9e-26.lan> - 2012-03-12 19:20 +0100
    Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade!New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade! Kiuhnm <kiuhnm03.4t.yahoo.it> - 2012-03-12 14:05 +0100
      Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade!New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade! Albert van der Horst <albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl> - 2012-03-12 19:00 +0000
        Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade!New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade! Kiuhnm <kiuhnm03.4t.yahoo.it> - 2012-03-12 21:27 +0100
        Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade!New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade! Kiuhnm <kiuhnm03.4t.yahoo.it> - 2012-03-13 12:00 +0100
        Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade!New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade! Kiuhnm <kiuhnm03.4t.yahoo.it> - 2012-03-13 12:03 +0100
        Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade!New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots Af Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz <spamtrap@library.lspace.org.invalid> - 2012-03-12 16:20 -0400
        Re: New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade!New Science Discovery: Perl Idiots Remain Idiots After A Decade! Kiuhnm <kiuhnm03.4t.yahoo.it> - 2012-03-13 17:41 +0100

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