[Axiom-developer] Re: .spad, .input, .as and autocoercion

[Gabriel Dos Reis]

On Thu, 16 Aug 2007, Martin Rubey wrote:

| > Currently, to translate from interpreter language to compiler language, one
| > needs a combination of ")show," ")display," ")set mess bottom on," ")set
| > message auto on," and hyperdoc searches to identify packages and
| > coercions. This process is repeated every time there is a compiler
| > complaint. This is time that could be spent for documentation instead.
| 
| Try using Aldor!

I tried.  And many other language that take a, I would say "military",
approach to the issue.  Not everything works the same for everybody.
I constantly found that requiring explicit conversions was more of distraction
than help -- that does NOT mean I do not know the problems with implicit 
conversions.  I perfectly understand the arguments for requiring
everything to be written explicitly.  

Even Aldor permits some coercions -- sorry, they are called
"courtesy conversions".

-- Gaby