phipps@garth.UUCP (Clay Phipps) (02/03/89)
In article <21@euteal.UUCP> mart@euteal.UUCP (Mart van Stiphout) writes: > >... I suggested some more support in high level programming languages >for list processing. ... Well, I don't want to use Lisp but I have >some ideas on list and I would like to know what other people think of them. >... I REALLY HATE LISTS. There are several reasons why I hate lists: ... >[in summary: tedium of allocation and linkage, potential for error > during manipulation, and the overhead of necessarily serial access]. >What I really like are arrays. They have numerous advantages: >[in summary: the opposite of the above grievances against linked lists]. >I hereby propose to do away with linear linked lists. >Instead we should use flexible arrays or sparse arrays. You seem to be unaware of C.A.R. ("Tony") Hoare's paper: "Notes On Data Structuring", in the classic Dahl, Dijkstra, Hoare book: _Structured Programming_, 1972, Academic Press. You will want to read it; in particular, you will want to look at "recursive data structures". A related paper by Hoare is "Data Reliability", from the Proceedings of the 1975 International Conference on Reliable Software, printed as _SIGPLan Notices_, vol. 10, num. 6 (June 1975). The ideas in these papers aren't the solution to everything, but they address a lot of your concerns | grievances. -- [The foregoing may or may not represent the position, if any, of my employer] Clay Phipps {ingr,pyramid,sri-unix!hplabs}!garth!phipps Intergraph APD, 2400#4 Geng Road, Palo Alto, CA 93403 415/494-8800