Re: [q-lang-users] Two proposed improvements to Q

[John C. <co...@cc...>]

Albert Graef scripsit:

> Yes, the syntax seems reasonable, I already have this on my TODO list.

Maybe you could export your TODO list, either to the website or by
keeping it in the CVS project directory (which is what I do for
my projects).

It might lead to some interesting discussions.


> One related question is whether prelude.q should really import all the
> standard library modules. This is convenient, but also a source of
> "namespace pollution". 

It's kind of slow, too.  If I were going to cut anything, I'd cut clib.

> Which operations do you have in mind? I mean, you can already create a
> tuple of references, e.g., like this: 'tuple [ref ():I in [1..N]]', and
> then assign with 'put (V!I) X' and retrieve a value with 'get (V!I)'.

Sure.  Just sugar them with "vget V I" and "vput V I X", I guess.
Then you can add vmap, vfold, vunfold, ....

> > Following that, byte vectors (mutable byte strings) would also be
> > a useful addition for dealing with large quantities of homogeneous
> > data; these have to be done in C, but would be far more efficient
> > than any alternative representation.
> 
> Yes, actually I've had something like this on my TODO list for a while,
> in order to provide better support for numeric and signal processing
> applications. 

The proposed R6RS Scheme bytevectors provide read-write access to
any point in a bytevector as signed and unsigned {8,16,32}-bit values,
single and double floats, and strings using a specified character code.

-- 
John Cowan  co...@cc...    http://ccil.org/~cowan
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the
continent, a part of the main.  If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a
manor of thy friends or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for
whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.  --John Donne