Favorite non-python language trick?

[johng2001 at rediffmail.com]

John Machin wrote:
> James wrote:
> > Interesting thread ...
> >
> > 1.) Language support for ranges as in Ada/Pascal/Ruby
> > 1..10 rather than range(1, 10)
>
> Did you mean 1..9 or 1...10 or both or neither?

You are right. There is a difference.
1..10 == range(1, 10 + 1)

> Can this construct be used like this: (i+1)..n ? If not, what would you
> use?

Sure. In Ruby, you can do

i = 2
n = 5
for x in (i+1)..n do
    print x
end

Can't in Ada/Pascal as far as I remember.

> What is the frequency of range literals in the average piece of code?

Well! I certainly have not done a study with code metrics. You probably
can find something online. That probably will be variable and might
depend on individual language affordances.

BTW, Ruby's times loop is another thing I find better readable for a
few cases.

4.times {
    print "Something ..."
}

than

for x in range(4):
    print "Something ..."