Question about checks for min and max values

[Fairlight]

Simon--er, no...it was Nancy Palmquist--said:
> 
> The correct mathematical definition for a IF line "eq" or slang "=" is 
> equivalent.  Equivalent is not the same as Equal

Given:

1) You can use "=" in place of "eq" on an IF conditional segment

2) The "=" sign is universally recognised as an EQUALS sign, not an
"equivalence" sign


Then:

The "=" sign is misconstrued and very loosely utilised in filePro, compared
to the rest of the programming world.  


It may be what you expect from fP, but it's not what the rest of the world
expects from a programming language in general.  That was Jay's whole
point.  I agree with him.

Attempts to rationalise its behaviour within fP are all fine and well, but
they serve only as a bulwark for something that was (IMHO) incorrectly
designated as interchangeable with something that should possess a
different functionality entirely.

In a conditional sense, equivalent and equals are not interchangeable in
terms of result, as you so eloquently illustrated, and therefore should not
be in terms of syntax.  That way leads to obfuscation and bugs.

That said, I doubt fP's syntax will change after 25+ years of being "wrong"
on this topic.  That is -is- wrong will continue to remain a point of
contention between those of us that regularly program in other languages as
well, and those who live 95% or more in the fP-only coding world.

So...let it go.  I disagree with its interchangeable implementation,
but arguing the point won't change anything.  They're too busy adding a
spell checker to be bothered with it, even if they cared about the real
difference.  I doubt they would muck with backwards compatability anyway at
this point.  Too much extant code relies on the faulty application of that
operand for them to dare touch it.

It's not worth fighting over.  The facts speak for themselves to anyone
that cares to observe them.  They don't need rationalisation.  So long as
someone's aware of the fP-specific implications, they can work around it.
That they shouldn't have to is probably Jay's point, and definitely has
always been mine.

mark->