Per Bothner <xxxxxx@bothner.com> writes:
> Jussi Piitulainen wrote:
>
> >Shall we switch, and is a vector good enough for an index object? (I
> >believe somebody asked for such packaging even apart from efficiency.)
> >
> A modest but not order-or-magnitude difference on a non-optimizing
> implementation is not does not IMO justify a less natural api.
>     --Per Bothner

I would contend that is it a *more* natural API. I find it just as
annoying as the compiler finds it inefficient to scan past an unknown
number of arguments to find something that should *always* be there.

Secondly, the index-type of the data structure should be atomic. It is
an atomic element (a number) in the single-dimensional case. Having a
different index type for a multi-dimensional array is entirely
reasonable - the type signatures of indexed aggregate data structures
all remain the same. Which is more similiar to (vector-set! v index val):

        1 - (array-set! a index val)
     or 2 - (array-set! a index0 index1 index2 val)

The answer seems pretty obvious to me. Others with different esthetic
standards may disagree, but given that one *is* faster, and arguably
(not definitively) cleaner, why not go with it?

david rush
--
To get anywhere with programming we must be free to discuss and
improve subjective phenomena. and leave the objective metrics to
resultants such as bug reports.
	-- The Programmer's Stone (Alan Carter & Colston Sanger)