OpenEuphoria

Re: Structures; etc.

• Posted by Irv Mullins <irv at ELLIJAY.COM> Jan 30, 2000
• 492 views

On Sun, 30 Jan 2000, you wrote:
> I think the best way to go would be to use a pre-processor. This would
> allow the interpreter to stay small and fast, and it would not require
> any modification. It would also let people choose from a variety of
> pre-processors, or write one themselves, so they can decide on the style
> they like.

Pretty much out of the question - we would still be using the type() function.
Try this program:

atom start

type byte (object x)
 if x < 0 or x > 255 then return 0
 else return 1
 end if
end type

byte x

start = time()
for i = 1 to 10000000 do
  x = 5
end for
? time() - start  -- takes avg. 4.51 seconds

integer y

start = time()
for i = 1 to 10000000 do
   y = 5
end for
? time() - start -- takes avg. 0.54 seconds

You can see that user-defined types are useless except for debugging purposes,
as the overhead kills any performance whatsoever.  This is for a single type
check. I haven't even tried nested type checks. Any pre-processor would either
have to let everything go untyped, or rely on the type() function. Neither is
acceptable. This functionality needs to be built into the language itself.

Irv