Side-effect free containers for E

[Norman Hardy]

At 11:49 -0400 00/08/08, Tyler Close wrote:
>Since the E language might currently be undergoing some revision for
>compilation reasons, I am going to take the opportunity to suggest
>some other changes I would like.
>
>The E language recognizes the value of side-effect free containers,
>using them as the default for the syntactic sugar for constructing
>containers. Unfortunately, the current E implementation doesn't keep
>up with the goal.
>
>Currently, there is no way to make efficient use of a side-effect free
>container in E. Using the ConstList or ConstMap means constantly
>flipping between their Flex versions, making numerous unneeded copies
>of the container as you go.

I have argued for an Algol 68 view of mutable storage even though it 
unfamiliar to most. In Algol 68 the identifier that denotes 3 is more 
primitive than a variable the merely currently contains 3. The later 
concept is derived from the former.
The identifier of 3 is not a string substitution as in C's 
preprocessor; it is a full fledged member of the language.

What serves as Algol 68's ordinary integer variable, in fact 
immutably denotes the location that holds the current value.
-- 
Norman Hardy  <http://cap-lore.com/>