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

[Pascal J. Bourguignon]

Emanuel Berg <embe8573@student.uu.se> writes:
> Why the syntax is there at all is to provide fast
> (faster) access to the vector data type which has
> other time and space properties than do lists.

ABSOLUTELY NOT.

For example, in C++ you have vectors and lists, 
but you don't have any literal syntax for them.

You can have fast and slow data structures without having any literal
syntax for it.


Why do you keep confusing the two concepts?




>> Now, nothing prevents you to travel back to 1960 ...
>
> Save for physics, I'd go in a heartbeat... Only I'd
> put a blind eye to the politics, hallucinogens and
> computer infancy are sure appealing enough.

Yes. That's an idea I have for a startup that would provide the complete
experience for periods lasting years or more, of reconstituted
historical periods.  If we collect enough information about the sixties,
we should be able to reproduce a simulated environment with real-time
feeds (radio, TV, newspapers), and of course, a living environment
(harder work would be to reconstitute things like food quality, but we
should be able to provide a good approximation).

There are already companies that can provides newpapers or things like
that.

For a higher fee, I guess we could even provide a 60's job.  For
example, we could find a remote COBOL job, and provide it to a
programmer with punch card/printer interfaces.

>> Notice by the way that in emacs lisp, we lack
>> structure types. We can still implement them using
>> vectors (or lists), and write program using the
>> structure abstraction. If you want to write programs
>> using vector or string abstractions without using
>> actual vector or string type objects you can do so.
>
> Yeah, all the math stuff would be just as easy to do
> with lists. It is the computer stuff with memory
> access O(whatever) that is the difference.

Hence the choice of ACL2, since it's purpose is to do the maths more
than fast implementation.

-- 
__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