Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!purdue!gatech!hubcap!Bruce
From: delagi@sumex-aim.stanford.edu (Bruce Delagi)
Newsgroups: comp.parallel
Subject: Optimistic expression construct
Message-ID: <3532@hubcap.UUCP>
Date: 14 Nov 88 13:34:13 GMT
Sender: fpst@hubcap.UUCP
Lines: 13
Approved: parallel@hubcap.clemson.edu

In languages supporting futures, one could write something like

     (let ((b (future ...some-expression...))
           (c (future ...other-expression...)))
       (if a (...an-expression-requiring-the-value-of-b)
             (...an-expression-requiring-the-value-of-c)))

to get the effect of explicitly starting off optimistic calculations.  Only
one of the calculations would need to return a value to return a value for
the form as specified above.  If the pattern were useful enough, a macro
could be provided encapsulating the pattern as a language construct I think.

/bruce