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by kenjackson 5488 days ago
Don't most mainstream languages now give you this?

I think Javascript, C#, Ruby, Python give you this. C++ and Java don't.

And as you say, you do lose a fair bit giving this away.
1 comments
swannodette 5488 days ago
No all those languages suffer (except JS) from the fact they don't give you uniform access. Consider the different forms of access for dict types, array types, object types in said languages.
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kenjackson 5488 days ago
I have to admit that this distinction seems really minor. But maybe I'm missing something here. I'd love to see an example if anyone has one.
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swannodette 5488 days ago 

  (get "foo" 0)          ; \f
  (get {:foo 'bar} :foo) ; bar
  (get #{0 1 2} 1)       ; 1
  (get [:a :b :c] 1)     ; :b

  (def path [0 :foo 1])
  (get-in [{:foo "bar"} 1 2] path) ;\a
Being able to deal with data generically in a first class manner is very, very useful. You can only get this in all the languages you've mentioned (including JS) w/ more or less custom code writing.
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