1. Re: Forward Definitions
Your view of the situation seems reasonable to me. However, I suspect =
the interpreter ALREADY keeps a table of routine IDs, paired with names. =
I think this because I've written small test programs where the value =
sent to routine_id could be entered by the user via gets(), and it works =
just fine. Perhaps if all uses of routine_id in a program actually held =
literal strings, the table could then be optimized away at compile time. =
However, if the function can take any arbitrary string and check it's =
validity as a routine name, my guess is it HAS to use a table.
I also suspect the only reason 0 is valid is because of the way C (which =
Euphoria is written in) indexes arrays. After all, it is more efficient =
to use the direct index to the table entry rather than adding 1 to =
routine_id's return value, and subtracting 1 from the first parameter to =
call_func/call_proc.
Not that I necessarily agree with it...
Rod Jackson
----------
From: Carl R. White[SMTP:C.R.White at SCM.BRAD.AC.UK]
Sent: Friday, February 26, 1999 9:35 AM
To: EUPHORIA at LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: Re: Forward Definitions
I've been trying to avoid the language arguments 'cause I always come =
out
looking bad, but I've got to put in my tuppence here...
It seems that everybody wants routine_id() to work like open() already
does.
When the interpreter starts it creates an inbuilt table/sequence of =
valid
file handles, StdIn, StdOut and StdErr. Every time open() is called,
another entry is added to the table. On close() the entry is removed, =
but
this wouldn't apply to routine_id().
AFAICT, all Rob needs to do is add a table for the built-in functions.
<pseudocode snipped>
I admit I've probably taken a rather naive view of how the interpreter
does things, but to me, this seems to work.
It wouldn't even break code, because it still only needs one pass, IMHO =
it
remains within the Euphorian idiom, and it adds the feature that =
everyone
wants. Remove the "t =3D t - 1" line, and some more people are happy, =
but
not necessarily Rob... ;)
Comments? (/me detects: "You're mad!" etc.)
Carl
--
Carl R White -- Final Year Computer Science at the University of =
Bradford
E-mail........: cyrek- at -bigfoot.com -- Remove hyphens. Ta :)
URL...........: http://www.bigfoot.com/~cyrek/
Uncrackable...: "19.6A.23.38.52.73.45 25.31.1C 3C.53.44.39.58"
