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Re: #\a octothorpe syntax vs SRFI 10

This page is part of the web mail archives of SRFI 58 from before July 7th, 2015. The new archives for SRFI 58 contain all messages, not just those from before July 7th, 2015.




On Sun, 2 Jan 2005 campbell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

>On Sun, 2 Jan 2005, bear wrote:
>
>> Arrays are damned useful, and being able to write them succintly
>> is damned useful.  It's true enough that scheme code is mostly lists,
>> but that doesn't mean that a succinct syntax for arrays wouldn't be
>> very useful, nor does it mean that SRFI-10 syntax is good enough for
>> everything that isn't a list.
>
>This is a completely undefended assertion.  You claim that arrays
>should have a succinct syntax without stating why that is so, and you
>again fall back to the nebulous aesthetics to claim that SRFI 10 'isn't
>good enough' for arrays.

And your claim that it is good enough is based on what?  Look, I'm
going to quit responding on this subpoint: there is no reason
whatsoever *EXCEPT* aesthetics to pick any external syntax over
any other.  You lost (so badly that you are now forced to disparage
as "nebulous" the only possible argument), so deal with it.


>> Different coders, different code.  When I'm storing aggregations of
>> things, I usually use vectors for access speed rather than lists.
>> Doing so is extremely awkward in Scheme.  I only use lists in code
>> where they're either "the right thing" for that particular application,
>> or I'm being deliberately lazy and not optimizing.
>
>Sorry, I meant '...more frequently than arrays in Lisp's syntax.'  (It
>was originally part of the first point, but, when splitting it off into
>a separate point, I forgot to include the 'in literal syntax' part.)

My source code in some cases is almost five percent literal vectors.
A recent example:


;; transformation matrix for a camera right turn of 0.1 radians.
(define right-turn-1 #( #((cos 0.1) (sin 0.1) 1.0   1.0)
                        #((sin 0.1) (cos 0.1) 1.0   1.0)
                        #(1.0       1.0       1.0   1.0)
                        #(1.0       1.0       1.0   1.0)))

I don't want a front-loaded syntax because it will push the
indentation level over further than is convenient to work with.


>>                                                     I even go so far
>> as to implement "closure" arrays for succinct reference and mutation
>> instead of going through vector-ref and vector-set!.  Not being able
>> to write an external form for such gets in my way.
>
>Perhaps you could elaborate on this: I don't quite understand what you
>mean here.

I define mutable arrays using a constructor that returns a pair of
procedures - one for reference and one for mutation.  So I can
do something like this:

(let ((m (closure-array 4 4)))
  (define foo (car m))
  (define foo! (cdr m)))

instead of
(define foo (vector (make-vector 4) (make-vector 4) (make-vector 4) (make-vector 4)))

and thereafter:

(foo 2 3)
instead of
(vector-ref (vector-ref foo 2) 3)

and

(foo! 2 3 #\a)
instead of
(let ((z (vector-ref foo 2)))
   (vector-set! z 3 #\a)
   (vector-set! foo 2 z))


But this trick, however useful, is limited because the arrays I
can use with it are actually procedures, and procedures lack a
reliable read-write syntax.

This is just one example of the crap I go through to circumvent
the clumsiness of arrays in scheme, and one example of why I wish
they were as natural (and succinct) as lists.

>>  How
>> >    often do you find yourself wanting to write a literal array, except
>> >    as the first argument to SRFI 47's MAKE-ARRAY?
>>
>> Geez, let me count the ways.  Data tables for character properties.
>> color palettes.  Graphic sprites.  Coordinate transformation matrices.
>> cellular automata substructures.  Default Window coordinate lists.
>> Map data.  Integrated-circuit diagrams.  Alias tables for character
>> names.  Parallel Records.  Tuple aggregates.  Multi-Character tokens
>> for protocol drivers. Image data.  Compiler transition tables. Tax
>> rate tables.  Icons. Lists of countries, states, counties, and
>> municipalities.  Bus routes.  Airline schedules.  Cellular coverage
>> areas.  And the list goes on...
>
>Great.  So you've listed a lot of applications for arrays.  Now answer
>the question I asked: how often do you find yourself in Scheme code
>wanting to write literal arrays by hand?

Look again at the list.  Those are precisely what you asked for:
all are applications of STATIC arrays.

These are places where I want immutable arrays during runtime, and
the only way to get an immutable anything in scheme is to write it
directly.  At least up through debugging, I write these directly,
making them immutable.

				Bear