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From: sfk@otter.hpl.hp.com (Steve Knight)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Dynamic typing (part 3)
Message-ID: <2400037@otter.hpl.hp.com>
Date: 21 Mar 91 16:00:24 GMT
References: <602@optima.cs.arizona.edu>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Bristol, UK.
Lines: 20

Chris writes:
> Dan certainly gets better efficiency: -oneof- is slow on lists (because
> -length- and indexing are slow on lists). Given Steve's propensity for
> speed-hacking, I'm surprised he didn't write the definition of -syllables- as
>     lvars syllables = {% 'syllables'.discin.incharline.pdtolist.dl %};
> to generate a vector rather than a list. 

No fair, Chris :-)  It was only an anecdote ...  Still if you insist[*].
    define pdtovector( p ); lvars p; {% apprepeater( p, identfn ) %} enddefine;

Footnote:

Besides, you know I'd have written it like this for speed
    define program();
        lvars n = #| apprepeater( '/tmp/syllables'.discinline, identfn ) |#;
        repeat 3 times
            n.random.subscr_stack.pr
        endrepeat;
        nl( 1 );
    enddefine;