Re: Unexpected comparison behavior change in 4.5.1
This WebDNA talk-list message is from 2003
It keeps the original formatting.
numero = 48772
interpreted = N
texte = Brian Fries wrote: > As for the derisive comments as to my sloppy coding practices and > implications that it was my fault that my thoroughly tested and bug free > long-standing code broke, these were not appreciated. When writing that > code, I specifically tested to see what result WebDNA returned when > testing for containment of an empty string.Although the docs are silent on the subject, the longstanding practice has always been to use [showif bob=] and [hideif bob!], based (I believe) on Grant's suggestion. I personally find it bizarre that anyone would consider the contains operator when testing for null strings. That may be because I come from the Perl world where an undefined and empty string are two very different beasts. In addition, the C function instr() would similarly work exactly like the 4.5.1 behavior: a given string will never contain an empty string, even if that string were empty.> > And this whole time, NOBODY has indicated that they had tried the code > to verify that my experience is not unique, which is all I really asked > for at the beginning. > FWIW, I did test your code and 4.5.0a _does_ yield a different answer than 4.5.1, so you are not alone in seeing the problem. You may be alone in triggering it, however, though that hardly helps you at all. ;~)John-- John Peacock Director of Information Research and Technology Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group 4501 Forbes Boulevard Suite H Lanham, MD 20706 301-459-3366 x.5010 fax 301-429-5748 ------------------------------------------------------------- This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to the mailing list
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Brian Fries wrote: > As for the derisive comments as to my sloppy coding practices and > implications that it was my fault that my thoroughly tested and bug free > long-standing code broke, these were not appreciated. When writing that > code, I specifically tested to see what result WebDNA returned when > testing for containment of an empty string.Although the docs are silent on the subject, the longstanding practice has always been to use [showif bob=] and [hideif bob!], based (I believe) on Grant's suggestion. I personally find it bizarre that anyone would consider the contains operator when testing for null strings. That may be because I come from the Perl world where an undefined and empty string are two very different beasts. In addition, the C function instr() would similarly work exactly like the 4.5.1 behavior: a given string will never contain an empty string, even if that string were empty.> > And this whole time, NOBODY has indicated that they had tried the code > to verify that my experience is not unique, which is all I really asked > for at the beginning. > FWIW, I did test your code and 4.5.0a _does_ yield a different answer than 4.5.1, so you are not alone in seeing the problem. You may be alone in triggering it, however, though that hardly helps you at all. ;~)John-- John Peacock Director of Information Research and Technology Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group 4501 Forbes Boulevard Suite H Lanham, MD 20706 301-459-3366 x.5010 fax 301-429-5748 ------------------------------------------------------------- This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to the mailing list . To unsubscribe, E-mail to: To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to Web Archive of this list is at: http://webdna.smithmicro.com/
John Peacock
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