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Author Topic: Strangest language feature  (Read 4390 times)

Eóin

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Strangest language feature
« on: December 09, 2010, 11:13 AM »
Fantastic question (thread?) from over on stack overflow. Plenty of things in there I never knew about. For example:

In JavaScript:
'5' + 3 gives '53'
Whereas
'5' - 3 gives 2

From reddit originally


Deozaan

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Re: Strangest language feature
« Reply #1 on: December 09, 2010, 11:50 AM »
That was fun to read through.

MilesAhead

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Re: Strangest language feature
« Reply #2 on: December 09, 2010, 12:07 PM »
ahk can't be too far behind with this usage:

If 0 < 1
{
MsgBox, 64, DummyApp Usage, Usage: DummyApp params
ExitApp
}

To anyone coming from another programming language, the If statement should always be true, like "while 1" ... but not so!! :)

Renegade

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Re: Strangest language feature
« Reply #3 on: December 10, 2010, 06:11 AM »
I liked this (Algol):

Code: C [Select]
  1. int a[3] = { 1, 2, 3 };
  2. int i = 1;
  3.  
  4. void f(int j)
  5. {
  6.     int k;
  7.     k = j;  // k = 2
  8.     i = 0;
  9.     k = j;  // k = 1 (!?!)    
  10. }
  11.  
  12. int main()
  13. {
  14.     f(a[i]);
  15. }

At first glance, it looks hosed, but reading through starting at main() it makes perfect sense. My question then is... Sanity? Are you there? :P :D

Thanks for that link! Some very cool stuff in there.
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

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f0dder

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Re: Strangest language feature
« Reply #4 on: December 10, 2010, 06:14 AM »
Renegade: ugh, everything is passed by reference?
- carpe noctem

Eóin

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Re: Strangest language feature
« Reply #5 on: December 10, 2010, 06:55 AM »
Even if passed by ref that still doesn't make much sense :D

f0dder

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Re: Strangest language feature
« Reply #6 on: December 10, 2010, 09:05 AM »
Even if passed by ref that still doesn't make much sense :D
No, it would have to be... copied by reference? :P - very strange behavior for what I would expectto be a value type.
- carpe noctem