Re: Updated XPath spec

On Sun, Dec 20, 2020 at 12:35 PM Michael Kay <mike@saxonica.com> wrote:

> >There must be a reason why Fortran, a most math-oriented language, uses
> the 2-letter comparisons vs. the mathematical symbols.
>
> Of course there is! Fortran was designed 66 years ago for a character set
> of just 46 characters. The world has moved on.
>
>

I expected such a reaction :)

Please, note that this is the case even in Fortran 2018, people chose not
to use such symbols -- even in a most maths-related language. It is
unlikely that they missed such an opportunity by accident.



> (Interestingly, I've noticed that the latest version of IntelliJ uses
> symbols like ≤ when displaying a Java program, though it doesn't appear to
> accept them for data entry. I'm not proposing that we require such symbols
> - it will still be possible to write any expression using ASCII characters
> alone; but I think there are increasing opportunities to make code more
> legible by permitting them. But it's only an idea.)
>
> Michael Kay
> Saxonica
>

Thanks,
Dimitre