Re: [TUHS] C question for the historians

On 8 Nov 2017 09:27 -0700, from imp(a)bsdimp.com (Warner Losh): That smells like a Javascript influence to me, where if (!!x) or z = !!x; is _more or less_ idiomatic for if (x == true) or z = x == true ? true : false; (mind the difference between _assignment_ = and _equality_ == and _actually equals_ ===) or what in another language could be written as something largely similar to a simple if (x) if so desired. Simply, !!x coerces x from whatever it is to a boolean, based on the _truthiness_ of x. Where _truthiness_ is another of those lovely Javascript concepts. This, of course, is partly because Javascript (even more so than, say, C) lacks _any_ sane idea of types. Its type system is more similar to that of BCPL or PHP than even C, in that not only do you get to keep the pieces if things break (assuming that you're lucky enough to _know_ that things broke), but also that anything goes anywhere. That variable which held a boolean a moment ago? Sure, go right ahead and put an object or an array or a string in it. The next line of code can replace it with a floating-point value or single character no problem, and then you can have a conditional based on whether or not the latter has sufficient truthiness. (People who work with quantum computers must love that language.) -- Michael Kjörling • https://michael.kjorling.se • michael(a)kjorling.se “People who think they know everything really annoy those of us who know we don’t.” (Bjarne Stroustrup)