On Thu, 06 Jan 2011, Michael Hanus wrote:
> Wolfgang Lux wrote:
> > Thinking a bit more about it, I finally see a reason for keeping the
> > linearity restriction: Pattern matching in Curry (as in any other lazy
> > language) causes evaluation to head normal form, i.e., arguments are
> > evaluated just as far as necessary to make their shape equivalent to
> > the pattern. This is no longer the case with non-linear patterns. Each
>
> This is true but it is questionable whether one really
> reasons about a program in such individual steps
> like hnf computations. For instance, the work on the
> rewriting logic CRWL shows that a programmer might better
> reason in terms of call-by-value evaluations
> to understand the effect of nondeterministic computations.
> Laziness is a good vehicle to ensure completeness of computations,
> but it is not easy to think in this evaluation order.
>
> As a solution to this difficulty, I can imagine that
> a compiler issues warnings on demand for non-linear patterns,
> like it issue warnings for variables with a single occurrence.
I like the idea of a warning.
> > There is also one point in your proposal that needs further
> > clarification: What about function rules with (constraint) guards? f x
> > x | g = e seems to have at least two possible translations: Either
> > sequential
> > f x y | x=:=y &> g = e
> > or concurrent
> > f x y | x=:=y & g = e
>
> Good point, but I have no preference or good arguments for
> one of them. Intuitively, I'd prefer the sequential interpretation
> since the non-linearity condition belongs to the matching,
> i.e., it should be checked before any other guard or right-hand
> side computations takes place.
Are there some plausible examples where there is a difference
which might help choosing either one of the options?
> Best regards,
>
> Michael
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Best,
Sergio
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Received on Do Jan 06 2011 - 22:47:26 CET