Closed GoogleCodeExporter closed 9 years ago
I can think of several multisets used in Google code which would suffer an
OutOfMemoryError if they had AbstractCollection's toString() behavior!
I definitely like your suggestion of '×', but unfortunately, we've found that
even in
this day and age, the use of non-ASCII characters in code is still causing us a
lot
of headaches. I had a painful fallout from using an infinity symbol just in
*javadoc*
recently, let alone the code. It sucks that this is still the state of things
in
2009, but it is, even in Google where we have made several attempts to get all
the
tools uniformly using utf-8.
As for '*', I have never seen it used this way, and I personally like the 'x'
better.
Finally, an ImmutableMultiset and an ImmutableListMultimap are two very
different
kinds of collections, and it is only right and proper that their toString()
outputs
should not at all resemble one another!
Thanks for the suggestion and our ears are still open.
Original comment by kevin...@gmail.com
on 27 Sep 2009 at 4:06
I've just thought about another possibility: putting the occurence number
between
parenthesises (preceded by a space). For instance: [Test (2), Test2 (4),
UniqueTest].
Personaly I find it more readable than the 'x'. But of course, it means one
more
call to the append, but in terms of length, it is exactly the same (since 'x' +
' '
+ number = '(' + number + ')' ). It looks more like a "game inventory", but
there is
no more confusion about the 'x').
Original comment by ogregoire
on 28 Sep 2009 at 2:35
I like that idea! I also find the x to be confusing...
Original comment by yrfselrahc@gmail.com
on 28 Sep 2009 at 2:38
The parentheses idea isn't bad, so we discussed it internally, but we decided
to stick
with the current format. For one thing, the parens are more likely to appear
in the
toString() form of the key than an ending 'x 5' is, so this could potentially
cause
more confusion than it eases. Thanks for the ideas, everyone.
Original comment by kevin...@gmail.com
on 28 Sep 2009 at 8:07
Okay.
I'm sure of a no again, but anyway this time I propose the following syntaxes:
1. [1x(Test), 2x(Test2), 3x(Test3)]
2. [Test, 2x(Test2), 3x(Test3)]
3. [(Test)x1, (Test2)x2, (Test3)x3]
4. [Test, (Test2)x2, (Test3)x3]
Examples with parenthesis:
[1x(()Test(), 2x()Test), 3x(Test)Test(Test)]
All of these are readable and still use the "xN" syntax that is less likely to
be
encountered as you rightly point out.
Original comment by ogregoire
on 28 Sep 2009 at 8:23
Original issue reported on code.google.com by
ogregoire
on 27 Sep 2009 at 1:09