[Bro-Dev] set and vector operators

[Vern Paxson]

1.5 months ago we haggled over adding these and came close to converging,
and then I dropped the ball on trying to ice the deal :-(.  (Well, I also
needed some time to lick my wounds, since I didn't get my way much on
syntax preferences! :-P)

Here's where I believe we wound up:

(1) Add bitwise operators on "count" variables for &, | and ~.

(2) Deprecate element-wise arithmetic operations on vectors, such
    as "v * 3" meaning "multiply each element of v by 3".  Perhaps down
    the road we'll introduce syntax that flags things like "for this
    expression, vectorize it".

(3) Implement "v += e" to mean "append the element e to the vector v".

(4) Wait on whether "v + e" should mean "return a vector that is v with
    the element e appended".  (And indeed we can't do this right now if
    we're #2.)

(5) Keep "add" and "delete" for manipulating sets in terms of individual
    elements.

(6) Add "s1 & s2", "s1 | s2", and "s1 - s2" as intersection, union,
    and set difference.

I'm not clear whether we reached agreement on:

(7?) Add "s1 &= s2" etc. to mean "s1 = s1 & s2".  The advantage of
     having this as an operator is it might more easily enable efficient
     implementation of some set operations for big sets.  I suppose
     if we have it then we'd be expected to also have:
	(7') "c1 &= c2" etc., i.e., bitwise assignments for "count"
	     variables.

Please chime in if you remember where we wound up differently, and also
whether you disagree with #7.

Again, my apologies for the lengthy lull in attending to this thread.

		Vern