Re: Me no understand scoping

[Clinton Ebadi <clinton@unknownlamer.org>]

"Kjetil S. Matheussen" <k.s.matheussen@notam02.no> writes:

> Clinton Ebadi:
>>
>> As a matter of style, you probably want to avoid local-eval as it will
>> have to be removed whenever Guile ends up with a faster compiler (one
>
> I've never heard this before, and I think you are way wrong.
> first-class environments etc. is what makes Guile special
> and it would be insane to remove it since there are xx other very
> good scheme implementations. No more first-class environments,
> no more Guile for me. Well, I guess someone would fork Guile
> very quick in case it happened though.

Mutable first class environments available at runtime prevent a number
of useful optimizations. Immutable environments at runtime ought to be
fine (with nothing more than some space overhead). 

Mutable environments provided at compile time for macros should be
fine however. I think most everything you'd want to do with an
environment at runtime could be done at compile time instead, and
there is not much convenience lost as you could always recompile a
block to effect a change to its lexical environment.

-- 
And did those feet in ancient times
Walk bare upon these lonely streets like mine?
Does God watch us from that penthouse high above
His children down below who live on air and love?