From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,e382b50ddc696050 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-12-10 14:34:08 PST Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed00.sul.t-online.de!t-online.de!newsfeed.freenet.de!news2.euro.net!uunet!ash.uu.net!xyzzy!nntp From: Jeffrey Carter Subject: Re: Basic Properties of Lists X-Nntp-Posting-Host: e246420.msc.az.boeing.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Message-ID: <3C15337C.644622CC@boeing.com> Sender: nntp@news.boeing.com (Boeing NNTP News Access) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Organization: The Boeing Company X-Accept-Language: en References: <3C0DB9D0.7184868A@acm.org> <3C0EB851.77E7172A@boeing.com> <3C0FAF78.6F006DF7@boeing.com> <3C110606.A37E9D10@boeing.com> <8%8Q7.53294$xS6.88020@www.newsranger.com> <3C114702.98662A90@boeing.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2001 22:13:16 GMT X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.73 [en]C-CCK-MCD Boeing Kit (WinNT; U) Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:17721 Date: 2001-12-10T22:13:16+00:00 List-Id: Ted Dennison wrote: > > How about we use "Head" and "Tail" for terminology? In the final analysis I > don't think they are any more biased than "Front" and "Back". Plus those terms > are traditionally associated with lists, so they might be more acceptable to > Jeff. As an added bonus, I don't think anyone is liable to complain that it > ought to be "Tailward" and "Headward" instead. :-) Or CAR and CDR, with associated CARward and CDRward directions :) Head and Tail are OK. I'm primarily interested in being able to say things like the list is sorted in ascending order without adding confusing terminology about the direction of traversal needed to observe this property; Head -> Tail is implied. Saying the list is sorted when traversed Forward or Frontward is unclear. Similarly, I'd like to be able to say the previous element from position P without adding a direction; the previous element is closer to the Head. Is the Forward neighbor of P closer to the Head or the Tail? Maybe I'm just dense, but I find such terminology confusing. -- Jeffrey Carter