Re: [PATCH] * src/eval.c: Stop checking for nvars, and use only CONSP

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>]

>> I view the ELisp interpreter as a crutch to bootstrap the system.
> Well, I view the bytecode compiler as a crutch to get to LIMPLE for
> native compilation ;-)

I'll get there.

> I'm all for a revolution, but it might be a bit early to chop off this
> particular king's head...

Until we have good debugging support for byte-compiled code, the
interpreter isn't going anywhere, indeed.

But error reporting from the interpreter is very secondary because in my
view that interpreter should only be used for bootstrap and for
debugging, so all the code it executes should *also* be byte-compiled
(so we can rely on the byte-compiler for error reporting).

>>     (defun eval (exp) (funcall (byte-compile `(lambda () ,exp))))
> Except for the ones that can't.  ELC is still limited to 64K constants
> in the vector, for example, isn't it?

I believe so, yes.  If/when we bump into this limit we can push it
further (or finally replace our bytecode language with a new one ;-).

> But as for the original question, do we have to have Flet?

I have not seen this question asked in this thread.


        Stefan