[r6rs-discuss] Strings as codepoint-vectors: bad

From: Thomas Lord <lord>
Date: Mon Mar 19 01:52:15 2007

Thomas Lord wrote:
> Jason Orendorff wrote:
>>
>> One does not write portable code that manipulates text and then run it
>> on a different implementation when one wants rope-like performance
>> instead of conventional string-like performance.
>
>
> Aren't they the same, albeit at slightly different scales, except in
> those
> cases where rope-like is always better? Because, isn't "conventional
> string-
> like" an incomplete, degenerate rope implementation half-hidden in
> VM OS code?
>
> "yes"
> -t
>
>



"Conventional strings" make no physical sense if performance is
your goal. "Random access" is a polite fiction for when we ignore
power laws. Rumours of the death of Moore's law are premature
and language designers, as compared to OS designers, should be
less concerned with scale (in the fractal sense) -- even from the
most pragmatic of perspectives.

"yes, really. at least if you know what i mean."
-t
Received on Mon Mar 19 2007 - 02:01:54 UTC