nemesis wrote:
> Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
>> But that's kind of the point. Why do you think that?  Saying "order
>> shouldn't matter because it's a set" is begging the question.
> 
> A set in the mathematical sense has no order.

I'm asking you why a dictionary shouldn't have order. You're saying "A 
dictionary is a set, so it shouldn't have order." But what makes a 
dictionary a set?

> If the guy wants order, he goes for a list.  

And now you're telling me how to work around the problem of sets not having 
order. See? :-)

Not that it's worth arguing. I'm just pointing out the logic is flawed.

> PHP only got array, so it has to play many roles.

Or, I could say "Python dictionaries are broken, so you need something else 
to substitute for when you want ordered pairs." Considering there are 
occasions when you want an order-maintaining dictionary, it would seem to be 
of benefit to have such built in.

>> Why does order matter in argument lists, if the arguments all need distinct
>> names anyway? :-)
> 
> I think it has to do with pragmatism:  it's just simpler to go with a list than
> a hash.

You're answering a rhetorical question. :-) I don't think you can argue that 
it's pragmatic to order argument lists but not pragmatic to order dictionaries.

> Named arguments is a thing of a hip generation used to lots of cheap computing
> power and general resources.

Errrrr... math generally doesn't use named arguments, even back when 
"computer" was a job title.

Anyway, I was trying to make a point, not especially to say one way is 
better than the other, but that both are equally valid approaches, modulo 
efficiency.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   There's no CD like OCD, there's no CD I knoooow!

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