Re: 'table' as fallback for tables

[Coda Highland <chighland@...>]

On Mon, Jun 27, 2016 at 6:51 PM, Jay <jayvmithani@gmail.com> wrote:
> What if the __len value of the metatable of a table was used as the value of the length and tables have a default metatable that causes `t.n` to trigger __len, essentially making it the same as `#t`? Furthermore, it would work in the opposite way, where changing the value associated with the 'n' key would change __len, causing #t to change as well. Functions such as table.insert could increment the value of t.n and table.remove could decrement this value. (Or we could have table.set and table.add so that the user could choose whether or not to manipulate array length). Pairs would go unharmed as it wouldn't actually be a key in the table, just handled by the metatable.

I would find this satisfying, but that still raises the issue of how
to construct arrays while honoring DRY.

/s/ Adam