Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!sunybcs!boulder!hao!husc6!bbn!uwmcsd1!ig!jade!ucbvax!ARIZONA.EDU!gudeman
From: gudeman@ARIZONA.EDU ("David Gudeman")
Newsgroups: comp.lang.icon
Subject: variables
Message-ID: <8712220904.AA27710@megaron.arizona.edu>
Date: 22 Dec 87 09:04:31 GMT
References: <8712212229.AA08679@sophist.uchicago.edu>
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   Date: Mon, 21 Dec 87 16:29:03 CST
   From: goer%sophist@gargoyle.uchicago.edu (Richard Goerwitz)
   ...
   I wonder if it would eventually be possible to include some
   mechanism in ICON for manipulating variables themselves (and not
   just their values).

   Or is there some basic problem with doing things this way...?

						  -Richard Goerwitz

Offhand I would say that this is not a problem in concept or in
implementation, but it might cause problems with efficiency.  We get a
_lot_ of suggestions for additions to Icon, and many of them are
interesting and/or useful.  I would classify your suggestion as both.

Obviously we cannot implement every useful suggestion, (or even most),
since Icon is already a large language (maybe too large), and because
it has a large user community that expects continuity between
versions.  However Icon is also a vehicle for research into
programming languages, and we are always interested in how users feel
about Icon and where they feel it needs improvement.

For a more direct answer to your question: I doubt very much that such
a feature will appear in the near future, as current research is
moving in other directions.  I like to think of our research as a
traversal through a hugely branching tree of possible programming
languages, searching for the Perfect Programming Language.  It's not
at all clear that the tree is finite.

					David Gudeman

					    Department of Computer Science
gudeman@arizona.edu			    Gould-Simpson Science Building
{allegra,cmcl2,ihnp4,noao}!arizona!gudeman  The University of Arizona
602-621-2858				    Tucson, AZ 85721