> This is what really really irritates me - they are not incompatible!!!
>
> If they were then the compiler should refuse to add them together. It
> should force you to decide exactly how they should be treated.
>
>

You are not arguing with the compiler, but with the standard. And the=20
standard is the way it is because... just because it is the way it is=20
(and because all the lines of existing code that rely on this behaviour,=20
illogical or not). For the same reason I am typing this answer on a=20
keyboard that as a layout that was designed to slow typing down. Yet we=20
all use it (give or take a few excentric types).

Progress is sometimes possible, but more offten not. You can design a=20
new language that does things more or less right (Ada) and see it fade=20
away into disuse, or extend C with all its problems (C++) and get a=20
language that is widely accepted.

Wouter van Ooijen
--=20
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