Re: [Chicken-users] making lambdas more introspective

[felix winkelmann]

On 5/30/05, Michele Simionato <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> Are you saying that extended procedures cannot be optimized in general?

Well, more precisely, the compiler can not infer from

(define foo
  (extend-procedure
    (lambda ...)
    ...))

that `foo' is actually bound to the inner lambda. The `extend-procedure'
may (from the compilers point of view) return anything. And extend-procedure
may be redefined too...
On the other hand,

(define foo (lambda ...))

shows the compiler that foo is bound to the lambda and allows
inlining, etc.

> 
> BTW, I was trying to see if I could redefine "lambda" with tricks like
> this:
> 
> (define-macro (original-lambda formals . body)
>   `(lambda ,formals ,@body))
> 
> (define-macro (introspective-lambda formals . body)
>   `(extend-procedure
>     (original-lambda ,formals ,@body) '((formals . ,formals))))
> 
> (define-macro lambda introspective-lambda)
> 
> But it seems I am entering in an infinite loop somewhat ...

Yes, your new lambda refers to itself. That will need a more
primitive lambda form.


cheers,
felix