[timzaman]

"triple state boolean", what's next, a double precision fp32?

[tuukkah]

Also known as *bool, "Maybe Bool", "Boolean?", "Optional<Boolean>" etc.

[isbvhodnvemrwvn]

Well, in browsers there's `HTMLMediaElement.canPlayType()` which returns one of the following strings:

- "probably"

- "maybe"

- ""

Reference: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/HTMLMediaEl...

[skytreader]

My goodness. I remember having to explain this to my manager. They really wanted recording + playback in our platform. For as many browsers as possible. Even mobile (iOS, I'm looking daggers at you). In 2015.

AFAIR I just said fuck it and made playback as permissive as possible (i.e., only prevent media playback if canPlayType returned ""). I don't know how advisable that is but the bug got off my back anyway.

I dunno what makes this so difficult, why we can't get at least a definite "yes" even in 2021.

[PebblesRox]

That's like my washing machine which has a Normal setting, a Standard setting, a Wash setting...

[themulticaster]

Do you mean as in "If the washing machine has a Wash setting, what does it do if it is not set to Wash?"

[isbvhodnvemrwvn]

And what's the difference between normal and standard?

[ExtraE]

Wat

[watt]

yeah, but if you really need to store 3 states, why not make 1 first-class concept instead of awkwardly combining two?

[Spivak]

Because a nullable bool has literally the same semantics as Maybe<Bool>. Why invent it again but in your app this time?

[hibbelig]

Long Boolean! Yes, no, don’t know, weekdays only.

[pezezin]

If boolean comes from George Boole, then maybe we should call triple state values "Łukasiewiczan", it would make for a funny typing exercise :P https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_%C5%81ukasiewicz