Newsgroups: comp.lang.dylan
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From: cracauer@wavehh.hanse.de (Martin Cracauer)
Subject: Re: A bit of Dylan smell (Re: Attention all Dylan enthusiasts!)
Message-ID: <1995Nov15.083329.20365@wavehh.hanse.de>
Organization: BSD User Group Hamburg
References: <roy-071195130025@mac-240.camb.logica.co.uk> <1995Nov8.132609.28334@wavehh.hanse.de> <1995Nov10.105009.1978@wavehh.hanse.de> <page-1111950205490001@page.vip.best.com> <1995Nov13.144555.14429@wavehh.hanse.de> <page-1311952230000001@page.vip.best.com>
Date: Wed, 15 Nov 95 08:33:29 GMT
Lines: 46

page@best.com (Chris Page) writes:

>In article <1995Nov13.144555.14429@wavehh.hanse.de>,
>cracauer@wavehh.hanse.de (Martin Cracauer) wrote:

>> page@best.com (Chris Page) writes:

>> >Okay, I read the paper, but what does it have to do with Dylan? Do you
>> >think that Dylan's use of iterators is a sign of weakness? 
>> 
>> No. 
>> 
>> >Do you think
>> >that Dylan is perfectly capable of using "mapcar"-type solutions instead
>> >of iterators?
>> 
>> Yes.

>Succinct answers :-)  I was hoping for something a little lengthier, given
>the depth of the paper you originally referenced.

>In any case, given the above answers, do you have an argument for or
>against the iterator protocol in Dylan? Would it be better to replace it
>with a "mapcar" solution? Another way of putting this is: since you
>referenced Bakers paper, how do you feel his arguments apply to Dylan?

Ok, Ok. To give a precice answer, I'll have to work trough some
sections of DRM (I used DIRM so far), reread the paper and see if i
can test these things on one of the free inplementations. I'll try to
contact Henry Baker and ask if he's got an opinion on this (although
it seems he doesn't really like Dylan for other reasons).

Have to do this anyway to make my mind up about Dylan (Dylan itself,
not some random language I like because it smells like Lisp :-).

I'm pretty sure the answer will be that the iterator protocol is
defined for the sake of 'normal' programmers, although it is not
really needed in the way C++ needs it. Maybe it is easier to compile
iterator-like work to efficient code.

Later,
	Martin
-- 
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Martin Cracauer <cracauer@wavehh.hanse.de>  - BSD User Group Hamburg, Germany 
"As far as I'm concerned,  if something is so complicated that you can't ex-"
"plain it in 10 seconds, then it's probably not worth knowing anyway"- Calvin
