Ordinal numbers

[Mark Schonewille]

Hi Richmond,

Ten is defined as a constant and tenth as a keyword according to the 
dictionary. Eleven and eleventh aren't defined. Although a warning might 
be appropriate, it is easy to find out why it doesn't work, if one reads 
the dictionary: eleven and eleventh don't exist. Unfortunately, 
something lacking from the dictionary doesn't always mean that it 
doesn't exist :-(

I agree it is silly that LiveCode only contains the constants one to 
ten. I'm not sure that it is possible to have an infinite number of 
constants defined as ordinal numbers, but it should be possible to do 
this for very large numbers. Perhaps a feature request?

--
Best regards,

Mark Schonewille

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On 7/3/2014 21:44, Richmond wrote:
> So I have a field containing a text string (nothing very special there).
>
> BUT, I want to delete the eleventh character.
>
> Now scripts like this:
>
> delete the tenth char in fld "TEKST"
>
> work superbly.
>
> But after 'tenth' we get "in a pickle" . . . .
>
> and we have to do this:
>
> delete char 11 in fld "TEKST"
>
> SO; after 'tenth' we switch from Ordinal to Cardinal numbering, which is:
>
> 1. Inconsistent.
>
> 2. Makes the "Livecode Programming is in easy to understand English"
> sort of pronouncement
> look a bit disingenuous.
>
> 3. The Dictionary does NOT warn users about this change:
>
> for instance, if one types 'tenth' into the Dictionary search one gets
> this:
>
> "Use the tenth keyword in an object reference or chunk expression.
>
> It does NOT contain a "Government Health Warning" like this:
>
> For references above 10 one must use Cardinal numbers and the syntax of
> statements is
> different.
>
> -----------------------------------
>
> Today, having got my 10-13 years olds onto importing and exporting RTF
> documents;
> one of them [you know the one: the one you want to both throttle and
> admire for
> his/her thinking about 3 kilometres in front of you] asks "how do I set
> up a series of buttons to delete
> the first, second and third character in a textField?" SO, told her
> (let's cut out the politically correct crap; all the kids I teach who
> get their heads round Livecode really quickly are girls: the boys just
> lose interest)
> to use:
>
> delete the third char . . .
>
> Of course she obviously overdosed on Coca-Cola before class and decided
> to have buttons for 1st to 20th (well, she may be good at programming,
> but she is still a 12 year old kid); and, obviously things go
> pear-shaped at 'eleventh'.
>
> So told the girl that at that point you have to do:
>
> delete char 11 . . .
>
> AND; LO! out of the mouths of babes . . .
>
> "That's silly!"
>
> Which it is, frankly.
>
> SO: I did the usually "middle-aged teacher fudges around so that,
> eventually, he looks even more
> stupid than he does already" and told her that the best way to get
> around that was to do:
>
> delete char 1 . . .
>
> and, of course, her reply was: "So, if that's best why did you tell me
> about 'first, second' and 'third'?"
>
> Now I had a choice of things to say at that moment:
>
> 1. "Because I'm a slob who didn't think about that problem." [possibly
> the only reasons I didn't use this
> one was that it was a bit early in the morning for honesty, and, as a
> Bulgarian learning English she
> doesn't know the word 'slob']
>
> 2. "Because I didn't think you would go beyond 'third'"
>
> Neither of which are frankly satisfactory.
>
> -------------------
>
> Love from the "chalk face", Richmond.
>
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