Re: why are there [v e c t o r s] in Lisp?

[Pascal J. Bourguignon]

Emanuel Berg <embe8573@student.uu.se> writes:

> "Pascal J. Bourguignon" <pjb@informatimago.com>
> writes:
>
>> Because the presence of a data type in a language is
>> unrelated to the presence of a syntax for literal
>> objects of that type. ...
>>
>> So all the combinations are possible, which shows
>> that having a literal syntax for objects and having
>> types in a language are two totally
>> unrelated things.
>
> They are two different things but they are not
> unrelated. If a language offers features A, B, and C,
> then it should come in with a syntax a, b, and c to
> facilitate the usage of them features.

We agree, but you don't seem to realize the number of programming
languages that don't respect this rule.

And even lisp, for example, doesn't have a literal syntax for a lot of
lisp data type, such as hash tables or CLOS objects.  I mentionned emacs
lisp buffers, but a lot of emacs editing data structures don't have any
literal syntax.

There are still constructors and accessors to manipulate those types, at
run-time.


-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__                 http://www.informatimago.com/
“The factory of the future will have only two employees, a man and a
dog. The man will be there to feed the dog. The dog will be there to
keep the man from touching the equipment.” -- Carl Bass CEO Autodesk