Re: [Axiom-developer] Re: libaxiom.a

[Ralf Hemmecke]

Hi Bill,

> > ... I am proposing to remove NIL (or at least to hide it
> > in some low level library), since in my eyes that sounds
> > not very mathematical. If I want an empty list, it is 
> > much better to say "empty$List(...)" than "NIL$Lisp".
> > Don't you agree?
>
> Sure. It's only a name. Maybe the notation:
>
>   []$List(...)
>
> is even better? (We can hope the compiler optimizes this too.)

Maybe someone knows better than me, but I am very much thinking that the 
compiler has no chance to optimize that.

The reason is very simple.

"[]" is the same as "bracket()" and there is no **program code** that 
says that "bracket()" should be equal to the constant "empty". That 
equality is currently a reasonable convention, but it is a **convention**.

In order to optimize, the compiler would have to analyze "List" very 
carefully. I think that is impossible. Am I wrong?

Ralf