[r6rs-discuss] [Formal] Bytes<->vector procedures

From: Ben Goetter <goetter>
Date: Wed Nov 15 11:53:18 2006

> Currently ...-list->bytes and bytes->...list procedures are supplied
> to convert bytes vectors to lists of numbers and back. However, where
> one has the choice, programming with lists of numbers tend to be less
> efficient than programming with vectors of numbers.

"Bytes" objects (hate that name) are already sufficently vector-like to
be vectors as far as efficiency goes.

Lists are the central currency of Scheme higher-order programming.
If vector conversion functions were added, then they shouldn't replace
the list functions.

Neither is strictly necessary, however. It would be better instead to
drop all the list conversion functions, leaving bytes->u8-list (like the
currently nonexistent bytes->u32-list) to the domain of an application
that needs it.
Received on Wed Nov 15 2006 - 11:52:40 UTC