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merge (Re: zip or marry etc)

Aahz Maruch aahz at netcom.com
Wed Jul 19 16:25:18 EDT 2000 
[piggy-backing becase Peter's post hasn't shown up]

In article <3975EF36.1651C9CB at roguewave.com>,
Bjorn Pettersen  <bjorn at roguewave.com> wrote:
>Peter Schneider-Kamp wrote:
>> 
>> Okay, assume you call it "merge". What will somebody who
>> doesn't know what it's for think it does?
>> 
>> merge([1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6]) == [1, 4, 2, 5, 3, 6]
>> 
>> or
>> 
>> merge([1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6]) == [(1, 4), (2 ,5), (3, 6)]?
>
>Point taken.

True, but you know it's going to be *one* of the two.

>> Where's your problem with zip?
>
>Not a problem really, although my first association was "why would we
>want to iterate over a compressed sequence..." <wink>

Precisely.  "Zip" has come to mean compression, and I think *that's* a
much bigger point of confusion than figuring out which of two
alternative meanings is meant -- I am completely opposed to "zip".  I'm
not entirely opposed to "marry", but "merge" at least has a history of
computer usage compatible with what's being proposed here.
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