Something clever in the syntax of Elixir
2023-11-25elixir
I find this quite clever in the syntax of Elixir.
There are two sets of boolean operators in Elixir and
, or
, not
versus &&
, ||
, !
.
The difference is that and
, or
, not
only take literal boolean values. In contrast, &&
, ||
, !
can take values of all types. And all values except false
and nil
will evaluate to true
.
When you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. Because literal boolean values -- true
and false
-- are words. It's only natural that they go with words: and
, or
, not
.