[erlang-questions] {1} > 100 returns true ?!

[Joe Armstrong]

The original reason was that there should be a defined total order
over all terms (why? - so that we could write generic sorting
algorithms that could
order *any* terms).

The actual order was based on the idea of "complexity" an integer
is "simpler" than an atom. a tuple is simpler than a list and so on..

There was no real definition of "simpler" it was more or less the size
that an object took
in memory (by which measure [], should have been smallest, but is not :-).

The actual order is not important - but that a total ordering is well
defined is important.

/Joe


On Sun, May 17, 2009 at 9:40 PM, Francesco Cesarini (Erlang Training
and Consulting) <francesco@REDACTED> wrote:
> Hi Steve,
>
> This has to do with the lexicographical order of Erlang types.
>
> number < atom < reference < fun < port < pid < tuple < list < bit string
>
> Francesco
>
>
> Steve Kirsch wrote:
>> i must admit I am a bit baffled by why this isn't an error:
>>
>> 4> {1,3} > 100.
>> true
>> 5> {1} >100.
>> true
>> 6>
>>
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