Radey Shouman writes:

> Per Bothner <xxxxxx@bothner.com> writes:
>
> > Note an implication of this representation is that you don't want to
> > use a general array for a shape.  Instead' you'd want a shape to be a
> > simple (but read-only) vector.  So I strongly suggest that the specification
> > be changed to make shape be a *one*-dimensional array - or better
> > yet make it an unspecified opaque type.  (In that case for Kawa I would
> > use a simple Java primitive int array.)  Of course an implementation
> > does have the option of using a simple array interally for a shape, and
> > having array-shape wrap it in a general array, but that means that
> > array-shape would have to do object allocation.
>
> I would like to strongly second the suggestion to make the array shape
> an unspecified opaque type.  A two-dimensional array may well be
> optimal in the reference implementation, but it will likely be a
> burden for more primitively implemented arrays.  Also, I find the idea
> that an array shape object should become immutable only after passing
> it to one of the array functions as a shape to be a little bit weird.

Thirded.  Making an array shap an array seems to be confusing specification
with implementation.  I think that you're really defining two types of
objects in this SRFI, arrays *and* shapes.

Brad