Re: Shared Generic Instance Code

[dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar)]

Bob said

<<As far as implementation complexity: Probably the easiest thing is to
macro-expand.  Second easiest is to always share.  I don't think that's
a lot harder -- you just thunk-ize everything imaginable.  But
always-share is extremely inefficient in some cases.  Most complex is of
course to *sometimes* share.  This is of course the most efficient,
because you can make the trade-offs based on the individual situation.
For example, suppose you have a generic with a "type T is range <>;"
formal.  The best thing might be to create one copy of the code for each
size of integer that gets passed in.>>


Note that the *sometimes* share approach is what DEC implements, and also
what their patent is about.