Re: guilev1/2 musing

[David Kastrup]

Valentin Villenave <address@hidden> writes:

> On an unrelated subject, am I the only one puzzled by the fact that,
> although the global situation with Guile 2.0 was a mess, still they
> went ahead and released new major versions, a.k.a. 2.2 and 2.4? Or is
> it a year-based release cycle where the numbers don’t mean anything?
> Very unusual within GNU programs.

Basically, they mean incompatible VM models interpreting byte code.
Some basic functions (akin to "fold") fail on life-size data structures
because they basically store the entire data structure on the VM stack
unnecessarily, so instead of implementing them in some different manner
(where is the fun in that?), a new VM is created with a larger stack
size and the problem is declared fixed.

Some years later, the compiler might become smart enough not to actually
need all that stack space.

Matthews 15:27 And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs
which fall from their masters' table.

-- 
David Kastrup