Re: name an array function

[Daniel Llorens <daniel.llorens@bluewin.ch>]

On 21 Nov 2016, at 15:01, Panicz Maciej Godek <godek.maciek@gmail.com> wrote:

> As far as accessors are concerned, I'm not sure whether they actaully need names. Maybe it would be better to make them applicable, and produce "procedures with setters"?

I'd absolutely prefer (A i j) to (array-whatever A i j). Arrays *are* functions of indices.

But the mechanism for applicable objects isn't being used right now for any of the data structures with accessors. It isn't documented in the manual, either. I don't know how it works. Some patches are needed there, examples. Moreover if the type of arrays is changed (which I believe is needed to make arrays an applicable object), then we must retain compatibility with all the existing array procedures. I like the idea, but I don't think it's going to happen for 2.2.

Procedures with setters would remove the need for the modifying function (array-slice-copy! or whatever it ends up being called), but this isn't done now even for the pair array-ref / array-set!. However it is easier to implement.

My idea has always been to move the array descriptor (storage pointer, strides, etc), which is now an opaque C object, to Scheme. Then we could do lots of stuff without having to rebuild Guile, take advantage of compiler optimizations, etc. But even that isn't in the cards for 2.2. At least I don't think anyone is working on it.