Subject: Re: Could CDR-coding be on the way back? From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net> Date: 14 Dec 2000 12:35:59 +0000 Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp,comp.arch Message-ID: <3185786159689598@naggum.net> * Per Bothner <per@bothner.com> | I am not talking about how to implement lists efficiently in Lisp, if | by "lists" you mean the "list" type of Common Lisp, except that I | don't think there is much point in implementing cdr-coding, at least | in hardware. What I am talking about how to implement sequences or | lists in the more generic sense. Well, OK. cdr-coding is all about efficient implementation of lists in Lisp, and the reason I insist on that displacement offset that you reject out of hand even with the explanation is that the context of the whole thread has been how to store lists more efficiently, while obviously keeping all the listness qualities. I'm sorry you have missed this. I don't have a problem with your desire to use arrays. I use them all the time myself, and so do other Lispers. I don't see a conflict, and I don't see a need to optimize Lisp any more towards arrays, as the support for the abstract type "sequence" already there, too. It seems to me that you think "Lisp" is the Scheme branch of things, which I barely think is a Lisp at all -- I think Scheme is an Algol with Lispy syntax and some functional properties. There are many reasons I loath Scheme, but one of them is certainly that it exposes the choice of underlying types so much in the interest of giving you that Algol feel of efficiency and typeness. #:Erik -- The United States of America, soon a Bush league world power. Yeee-haw!