By “synonymous,” I meant “I’m an idiot”
jm December 5th, 2006
So, on page 224, in a note, I wrote:
You might see type conversions referred to as "type coercions" in programming-language literature; the terms are synonymous.
Well, I guess you can tell I got my CS degree from a public school. So, there’s two types of type conversions: explicit type conversions and implicit type conversions. Explicit ones are ones that the programmer explicitly invokes, via type-casts. Implicit conversions are the ones that the compiler does behind the scenes to make everything work. "Type coercions" are the implicit type conversions, not the explicit ones, so the above statement is wrong. While it’s rather fun being wrong while stating things authoritatively, I really hope they don’t revoke my ACM privileges. I still haven’t used my free kill.
