Re: flaming (Re: continuation and multi-threading)

[Jost Boekemeier <jostobfe at linux dot zrz dot TU-Berlin dot DE>]

Michael Livshin <mlivshin@bigfoot.com> writes:

> Jost Boekemeier <jostobfe@calvados.zrz.tu-berlin.de> writes:
> 
> > Mikael Djurfeldt <mdj@mdj.nada.kth.se> writes:
> > 
> > > I'm all for fast continuations and see their value.  I said don't ask
> > > me only because I don't know anything about Keisuke's VM---*yet* ;-)
> > 
> > Sorry, but why do you talk about stack copying then?
> > 
> > I really think (also regarding your other message) you should try to
> > understand the issue before posting.

> I can't see anything in Mikael's post that could justify such
> hostility.

Umm, where and why do you see any hostility in the above quote? I meant
what I said. 

I really think that it is a good idea to examine an object before
speculating how it might work.  I've made the same mistake several times
in the past, so I know what I am talking about. :)

Yes, I am quite sure that it is easy to implement cheap
continuations for his VM without slowing down the evaluator too much,
instead of building ourselfs into a corner with stack copying, and no,
I haven't said that we should drop syntax rules, I've said that my
design currently supports only syntax case.  Everything else is
speculation. And of course I haven't said that I want to trash my
environment implementation ..

I think that pushing his VM towards stack copying is a bad idea if we
haven't tried other possibilities.  Someone has said that "We
don't require that a thread can call a continuation created from a
different thread."  This might be true, but at least SRFI 18
requires it:

  A thread can also call a continuation captured by another thread as
  long as the call and the continuation are not in the scope of an
  dynamic-wind. 


I don't think that it's a problem that ordinary users may get a bad or
wrong impression about guile from this list. If it is, why not put a
sign at the entry that says "public works".

But of course that you're right that we should try to work together
and not against each other.  So if the above sounded harsh, I'm sorry
for that, that wasn't my intention.


Jost