Re: a farewell to chop

[Aristotle]

Personally, I haven't ever used chop except in the occasional obfu or golf.. having to look up the substr arguments wouldn't be any noteworthy pain since I just don't need chop that often. Actually, I need substr fairly frequently, so I wouldn't have to look it up at all. :-)

I suppose a few people might miss chop, but I won't be one of them. Just like some people have less use for substr than me. I do think that it is one of the things that you may want to keep because we've always had it just as well as ditch cause it's hardly much use.

So the question is, would it hurt to keep around? I think one argument in favour of ditching is that it's one less thing to advise beginners about.

I don't know. I see your point that this one specific operation will be a lot more awkward afterwards, and I concede that. What I'm not sure about is the significance of that argument. Count me as undecided, with a tendency towards ditching.

Makeshifts last the longest.