Re: User definable operators

ddean@CS.Princeton.EDU (Drew Dean) writes:


>Standard ML allows you to define your own operators [...]
>
>The people I talk to generally regard this feature as a mistake. It
>is not used that often, and I would not be surprised if it goes away.


I find it ironic that user-defined operators are criticized both as
being used too much ("the trouble with user-defined operators is
that people use them too much, and then their programs are unreadable")
and as being used too little ("user-defined operators aren't used often,
so why bother?").


My view is that if they are used sparingly, user-defined operators can
indeed significantly improve the readability of programs. If they're
not difficult to implement -- and usually they're not -- then I think
they are worthwhile.


--
Fergus Henderson <fjh@cs.mu.oz.au>
WWW: <http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~fjh>
PGP: finger fjh@128.250.37.3
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