Lambda the Ultimate

Bruce Eckel gives his take on C++ Templates vs. Java Generics, using the example of an apply() function that will apply any method to every object in a sequence:

What I found in modifying this example and translating it to Java was surprising. As far as generics go, it does in fact support my thesis that erasure emasculates generics. What is surprising is that ... the Java code is small and elegant, and far less verbose than the C++ code,... Alas, generics had nothing to do with this succinctness – it was actually reflection and varargs that were responsible. And so the power of reflection continues to be one of the most interesting features of Java, even though its runtime uncertainty is at odds with the Java Generics goal of eliminating ClassCastExceptions.

I figure the goal is for the compiler to proof the type correctness, but he's right in that RTTI is at odd with that goal.
(Also of interest, is the link to the Java Generics FAQ).


[Edit Note: The URLs should be working again]

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Wondering how Arrows might improve operating system design now that monads are ho-hum?
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An open standards process for Common LISP was announced a couple of weeks ago at the Amsterdam LISP meeting, the ALU CLRFI standards process, apparently modelled on the Scheme SRFI. So far only one standard has been submitted, a features testing standard.

Open standards processes such as the CLRFI have the potential to be of general value to people interested in language design issues, since they can bring out a great deal of tacit wisdom about language and library features that is otherwise difficult to get hold of.

Curently there is not much information about the whys and whats of the CLRFI process, though Kent Pitman has argued for some time that Common LISP needs a SRFI-like program. More information awaits a hungry audience!

Some Work on Arc

Hope this hasn't been posted yet.

Most of the research we discuss here on lambda is theoretical research, done with mathematical tools. But what about research about actual language use, those "human factors" we are so fond of discussing?

Research of the latter kind requires empirical data, the gathering of which, as Ralph Johnson discusses here, may pose ethical problems.

For what it's worth, I agree with Ralph that this is an "idiotic opinion," but it's an issue that might cause problems for some of the grad students reading LtU.

Not really related to this is the fact that doing meaningful research of the kind I am alluding to here is pretty darn hard, in fact quite close to being impossible.