On 24/01/2011 14:01, Lars Hellström wrote:
> Isn't this "elt" an implementation detail for that type of list (various
> \@elt tokens in 2e come to mind), and thus something that should be kept
> internal rather than canonised in a public interface? The clean solution
> for *both* types of list is rather to use "length".
Seems reasonable: one would normally talk about 'a long list of things
to do', so lists to have 'length' :-)
> Moreover, I get a vague impression that the term `elt' is part of the
> pseudo-LISP heritage of LaTeX (emphasis on the "La"). If so, then that
> is IMHO another reason to avoid it, as that heritage is full of square
> pegs trying to fit in round holes.
Not being familiar with Lisp, I can only go on things like LaTeX2e's
\@cdr, etc., which have much more sensible names in expl3.
>> I didn't write "clist_nth" with a view of it being the permanent name,
>> but
>> now that I've written it I can't think of a (good) alternative. Any
>> thoughts?
>
> I think the verb you're looking for is "index", i.e., the command name
> would be clist_index.
I'd imagine 'index' to be the other way around:
\clist_index:Nn \l_some_clist { item } => Number
whereas what Will has implemented gives the 'entry', 'element', 'item'
or some such name. ('element' seems to be discouraged based on the first
part of your e-mail, so perhaps 'item' is better.)
> first: Return index of first occurrence of a particular item within a
> clist,
> or -1 (given 0-based indices) if the item does not occur therein.
> last: Return index of last occurrence of a particular item within a
> clist,
> or -1 (given 0-based indices) if the item does not occur therein.
> (Note: Slightly trickier to implement.)
Both of these look relatively easy to do.
> range: Return a subrange of the clist, i.e., if \a_clist is "a,b,c,d" then
> \clist_range:Nnn\a_clist{1}{2} returns "b,c". (I don't have an
> opinion as to what might be the best sense of "return" in this
> case.)
> replace: Replace the material in a subrange of the clist by some other
> clist material.
More tricky. Let's sort the others first :-)
--
Joseph Wright
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