Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ginosko!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!rutgers!cmcl2!lanl!opus!ted From: ted@nmsu.edu (Ted Dunning) Newsgroups: comp.sw.components Subject: Re: Assignment in Ada, etc. Message-ID:Date: 27 Sep 89 19:30:34 GMT References: <6592@hubcap.clemson.edu> Sender: news@nmsu.edu Organization: NMSU Computer Science Lines: 36 In-reply-to: billwolf%hazel.cs.clemson.edu@hubcap.clemson.edu's message of 26 Sep 89 19:19:44 GMT In article <6592@hubcap.clemson.edu> billwolf%hazel.cs.clemson.edu@hubcap.clemson.edu (William Thomas Wolfe, 2847 ) writes: From ted@nmsu.edu (Ted Dunning): > one of the problems is that an in parameter is still a reference which > must be accounted for. since there is no mechanism to handle > initialization distinct from assignment, it is difficult to write a > robust reference counting collection mechanism. OK, I agree. Nobody ever does this anyway, and I can't imagine why anyone would want to. it is done commonly and easily in c++. > hmmmm..... seems to me that mister wolfe hasn't done much lisp > programming if he thinks that lisp has no concept of data typing. > perhaps he should read CLtL a bit. particularly chapter 2 (data > types), chapter 4 (type specifiers), section 6.2 (data type > predicates), chapter 9 (declarations), as well as chapters 12, 13, 14, > 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19 which describe the builtin data types and type > extension methods available to the common lisp programmer. OK, I'm not up on the very latest versions of Lisp (of which I hear that there are many). How about multitasking capabilities? trivial and lucid in lisps that support continuations and/or engines. try scheme, allegro common lisp, symbolics common lisp, or xerox's interlisp offerings. if you want to play, grab a copy of one of the pd interepreters from the net. -- ted@nmsu.edu remember, when extensions and subsets are outlawed, only outlaws will have extensions or subsets