Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!spool.mu.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!ai-lab!zurich.ai.mit.edu!markf From: markf@zurich.ai.mit.edu (Mark Friedman) Newsgroups: comp.lang.scheme Subject: Re: Order of evaluation Message-ID: Date: 5 Apr 91 17:14:07 GMT Sender: news@ai.mit.edu Reply-To: markf@zurich.ai.mit.edu Organization: M.I.T. Artificial Intelligence Lab. Lines: 20 I believe that there is an expressiveness argument in favor of keeping the order of evaluation of combinations unspecified. Scheme has a number of mechanisms for indicating a specific order of evaluation (e.g. LET* and BEGIN). Scheme also has some mechanisms for indicating that the order of evaluation is unimportant (e.g. combinations and LET). The language is more expressive currently than if order of evaluation where always specified because a programmer would have no way to express the fact that order of evaluation was not important. -Mark -- Mark Friedman MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab 545 Technology Sq. Cambridge, Ma. 02139 markf@zurich.ai.mit.edu