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> Overloading operators makes code a lot more readable and user friendly, Completely true for scientific computing, but I've been subjected to libraries writte

• StefanKarpinski 13y ago
  The key to preventing overloading of definitions from being a complete disaster is to be very careful not to overload meanings. I.e. if you're going to have lots of methods for your `frob` function, you had better be crystal clear what it means to `frob` something and only add methods that fit that definition. Scala and C++ libraries tend to like to just pick a random operator and use it to mean some arbitrary made up thing because they feel like it, ignoring the meaning of the operator. The classic example in C++ is using << for stream output. That's the left shift operator for Pete's sake! Why would that be what you use print stuff? Because you liked the look of it? It's not terribly surprising that this a complete usability disaster.