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000204_icon-group-sender _Mon Aug 1 09:17:30 1994.msg
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Received: by cheltenham.cs.arizona.edu; Mon, 15 Aug 1994 05:40:55 MST
To: icon-group-l@cs.arizona.edu
Date: 1 Aug 1994 09:17:30 -0400
From: nmw@ios.com (Nick Williams)
Message-Id: <31isla$rop@ios.com>
Organization: Internet Online Services
Sender: icon-group-request@cs.arizona.edu
References: <775255847snz@wildcard.demon.co.uk>, <1994Jul28.024918.24655@cs.rit.edu>, <31akl6$lta@kaa.heidelbg.ibm.com>
Subject: Re: What other experimental languages connect to a windowing system? (was: Why is TCL successful ?)
Status: R
Errors-To: icon-group-errors@cs.arizona.edu
In article <31akl6$lta@kaa.heidelbg.ibm.com>,
Wolfgang Lux <lux@rio.heidelbg.ibm.com> wrote:
>In article <1994Jul28.024918.24655@cs.rit.edu>, nmw1638@cs.rit.edu (Nicolas M Williams) writes:
>|> Icon ... is
>|> also a very functional language, about the only lisp-like features it
>|> is missing are lambda expressions, quote and and a simple syntax
>|> (although all expressions except for assingments can be expressed in a
>|> form that is very similar to lisp's s-expressions).
>Sorry, but I thought lambda was one of the very functional parts of
>lisp. Should it be true that Icon has no way of representing anonymous
>functions?
All expressions in Icon produce results (i.e. there is no such thing as
a void typed functions as in C or CL). It also has apply/funcall like
expressions. Pointer semantics abound and there is no way to pass
pointers-to-pointers to functions (i.e. no quote function). All of which
makes Icon a heck of a lot more of a strict functional language than is
CL, though it does have variable assignment expressions, as well as
destructive functions and though it does not have lambda expressions. It
does have a feature that comes close to lambda expressions and which its
authors call "co-expressions;" these co-expressions are co-routines that
can be created more or less dynamically from regular Icon expressions.
Perhaps you should take a look at the introduction to Icon that can be
found in cs.arizona.edu:/icon/doc/tr-90.6.doc (also tr-90.6.ps.Z). Its
quite short...
>Wolfgang
>--
>Wolfgang Lux
>WZH Heidelberg, IBM Germany IBM IP-Net: lux@rio.heidelbg.ibm.com
>+49-6221-59-4546 VNET: LUX at HEIDELBG
>+49-6221-59-3300 (fax) EARN: LUX at DHDIBMIP
Nick