Re: #\a octothorpe syntax vs SRFI 10 Bradd W. Szonye 05 Jan 2005 16:55 UTC

Aubrey Jaffer wrote, regarding CL/PLT #n(0) shorthand:
> What is the utility of an immutable large zero matrix?  That shorthand
> could be useful in calls to the ARRAY (or LIST->ARRAY) procedure, but
> for literal arrays it is wasted.

Second thought: The shorthand is also useful with an ARRAY-COPY
procedure (with semantics analogous to STRING-COPY and VECTOR-COPY).
These calls would have the same result:

    (make-array #(0) 100 100)

    (array-copy #100x100((0))

The second sequence isn't any shorter, but some folks may find it more
intuitive.
--
Bradd W. Szonye
http://www.szonye.com/bradd