Talk:First class environments: Difference between revisions

::::::: If first class environments are a true language feature, they give additional control to the programmer, over closures, continuations and other constructs. Not a big thing, but useful. For example, the PicoLisp GUI uses them to pass state between HTML pages and forms/dialogs across HTTP transfers. --[[User:Abu|Abu]] 09:32, 2 July 2011 (UTC)

:::: This is interesting. In some languages variable names are really just dictionaries, such as Perl package variables or "named variables" in PostScript. This fact may be used both for and against having this task, but personally I think the task is worthwhile, even if only to show how each language handles name lookups. --[[User:Ledrug|Ledrug]] 22:34, 1 July 2011 (UTC)

Concerning the question whether the C solution "fits the spirit": I would say yes, though instead of switching the pointers to 'sec' and 'cnt' I would save and restore the actual values. This would better simulate the "binding" of the "environments".--[[User:Abu|Abu]] 15:17, 30 June 2011 (UTC)

: Well, that's quite a bit more work. Right now I can just swap the links (addresses) and forget about it (which is in a sense more "real"), if I copy values, I'd have to copy them back after each job switch, can't exit job control loop whenever I want, etc. The way I look at it, just pretend the "*" is a special marker for environment variables. In the worst case, the job function itself can copy and restore them to stack if really needed. --[[User:Ledrug|Ledrug]] 16:40, 30 June 2011 (UTC)