Characters that can be used in an array key

[Dar Scott]

I doubt that anybody is to go say "my code broke" when this is fixed.  I understand the collection of odd stories, but LiveCode is for everybody not just the priesthood.  I think the issue here is more than unicode; binary data applies.  

Thank you for putting up with my mock crankiness.  

Dar

On Apr 30, 2012, at 4:43 PM, Richard Gaskin wrote:

> Dar Scott wrote:
> 
> > I am not advocating doing away with arrays.  I am advocating doing
> > them right.  This "feature" (bug) should have been fixed before
> > arrayEncode() was created, immediately before if not well before.
> 
> Back in the olden days when people still used Usenet, there was a lengthy thread in comp.sys.mac.hypercard in which Christopher Watson of the SuperCard team and Kevin Calhoun of the HyperCard team debated almost to the point of fisticuffs the approach each team took toward language enhancements.
> 
> Calhoun's position was that the HC team felt it was very important to get a feature absolutely right before rolling it out, that the syntax had to have a good feel to it and the feature itself be complete.  He noted that many times the team was willing to hold off on a feature until it met their standards.
> 
> Watson's position could be summarized as, "Yeah, but we ship."
> 
> ;)
> 
> HyperCard died three years later, while SuperCard is still being enhanced to this day.
> 
> Software that's been around long enough becomes a collection odd stories that explain the many anomalies it will possess.  It doesn't correct them, just explains them.
> 
> I believe array support in MetaCard predates the Unicode standard.
> 
> I agree that the current situation is less than ideal, and indeed NULL-terminated strings are the bane of many programmers who now find themselves faced with Unicode.
> 
> So it goes.
> 
> I know many deep changes are occurring throughout the code base to accommodate Unicode ever better.  I'd be surprised if this isn't one of them, but there's such a long list it may take a while to address.
> 
> Software is a complex business, even on short-lived products.  The only thing more complex is to be successful enough to survive until your data structures become obsolete by new standards. :)
> 
> --
> Richard Gaskin
> Fourth World
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>