Interesting Raku bugs and problem solving proposals potentially worthy of discussion

[jeffgazso]

Add to this thread liberally.

Interesting Rakudo and MoarVM Bugs

• Unintuitive behavior when invoking the reduction operator against a Buf [#5823]

I found that invoking ANY numeric reduction operator against a Buf directly just returns the number of elements:

raku -e 'say [+]  Buf.new(1,2,3);'  # 3

The bug was filed because this seemed like unintended behavior. While trying various things I encountered a confirmed bug which was promptly fixed:

raku -e 'say [%] Buf.new(1,2,3);' # Buf:0x<01 02 03>

If returning the total number of elements in the Buf is indeed the intended behavior, [%] should do that just like the others. Liz fixed it. [0730199b32]

Interesting Raku Problem Solving Proposals

• Consider adding a leading modifier to a string in the manner of "0b10" to identify numbers of any allowed base [#468]

I like this idea, but the requestor wants to stop at N^36. I think N^64 is more appropriate as it would cover base-60, which is — to my knowledge at least — the highest number base ever in practical use by man. The Sumerians and Babylonians both used base 60, which is why there are 360° in a circle.

EDIT: Dumb idea on my part: there is no practical way to represent base >36. [0-9] + [A-Z] = 36 without resorting to mixed case, hence the limit. I updated my comment in the proposal. Also the highest base in active or historical use by humans appears to be base 80.

[jubilatious1]

What is the function [%]? I can't read it.

I'm guessing it's a [ ... ] reduction metaop with % in the middle, but % is modular math.

Thanks.

[jeffgazso]

@jubilatious1, correct it's the reduction operator with modulo.

I can't think of a reason why you'd want to do that, I just tried all the basic mathematical operators I could think of inside of a reduction operator, just to see if it did something unexpected when called against a Buf. Think of it as ADHD-driven fuzzing of the interpreter.

• I'm not sure why calling a reduction operator against a Buf gives me the sum of all elements. This may very well be a gap in my knowledge of Raku's internal design logic.
• The modulo operator didn't return an Int, as the other operators did; it returned a Buf which had to be a bug.