On Wednesday 08 May 2002 06:11 am, Pixel wrote:

>  I don't know if you have anonymous functions, but you may consider using
>  real anonymous functions instead of "blocks".
> 

Under the covers my blocks *are* anonymous functions. Currently they are not 
truly first class, for example I can't say:

y = {|x| print(x)}
y.call(1) =>  1

But that is mostly due to a parser that is inadequate as all of the necessary 
plumbing is in the class libraries and VM to handle this.

>  Usually programming languages have:

<snip> 

>  - ruby: blocks are a special beast allowing arguments, and are first class.
>  There is a distinction between functions and parameter blocks. Anonymous
>  functions are emulated with blocks. You can't have default-value (?) on
>  blocks, blocks must use "block.call(args)" instead of "func(args)".

When I first began work on Samson it was an experiment to clean up JavaScript 
syntax and to come up with a fast and tight JS VM. Since then things have 
morphed greatly, and Ruby is responsible for a good deal of that. (However, I 
am still trying to come up with the best unification of a prototype-based 
system and an inheritence based system... the code under the covers is pretty 
icky at the moment)

<snip> 
>  > iterate(a,b,c,d).each() { block}
>  >
>  > that would call the each method of each object in the chain. However, I
>  > couldn't think of a good use of that to save my life, so removed it.
> 
>  well, this is used quite a lot in functional programming languages. If you
>  want to allow functional programming style... :)

I think my syntax is convoluted enough at the moment, thanks. Besides, I look 
at OCaml and it makes my sick to my stomach... ;-)