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I was only talking about the 'list of function calls' aspect of assembler and Lisp, not the type system. I agree that Lisp has a type system and assembler doesn
by clarkd99 10y ago
I was only talking about the 'list of function calls' aspect of assembler and Lisp, not the type system. I agree that Lisp has a type system and assembler doesn't. Forth is another language that also has very simple syntax that approximates the 'list of function calls' style that I would say isn't unlike a macro assembler either.
I am writing a new language with built-in garbage collection that I think is quite superior to other languages. I have created a full standard library with almost 1,000 built-in functions and none of my data structures (lists, maps, trees, stacks, indexes, tables etc) contain pointers or linked lists (that use pointers). I sold over 30,000 copies of a language/database system in 1987 so I think your last comment is quite inappropriate. I have know about Lisp since I started CS in University in 1975.
Linked lists are horrible data structures when being used as well as when being freed (your garbage collection comment). I use simple dynamic multi-typed arrays instead of linked lists (pointers) and they can be freed in 1 chunk or a bigger version can be freed with a few memory de-allocations. I get full cache locality and improved speed of allocation and de-allocation.
I would love to see an incremental GC that can copy all linked lists nodes into contiguous memory automatically. Nice trick if you can do it but that doesn't help you if your linked list doesn't cause a GC.
- tlack 10y agoBig time array fan here. I'd love to check out your language when you publish it. Sooner the better.. we need new ideas! Email in profile if you'd like to chat about it.