Re: [ANN] CHICKEN 5.4.0 release candidate 2 available

Hi Felix,

Thanks for your feedback.

> #;2> #u8(1 "hello")
> > #u8(1 104 101 108 108 111)
> > #;3> (u8vector 1 "hello")
> > Error: (u8vector-set!) bad argument type: "hello"
>
> Literals like vectors contain <datum>s, which are not arbitrary
> expressions,
> this is just how the language is defined.


I actually never looked into this for normal Scheme vectors. Are the
literals for these
defined as part of the Scheme language?

#;8> #(1 2 (+ 1 2))
#(1 2 (+ 1 2))
#;9> `#(1 2 ,(+ 1 2))
#(1 2 3)

It appears there is a way to mix-and-match literals and arbitrary
expressions using
quasiquote. Would it be appropriate to support this for srfi-4 vectors too?

#;11> `#u8(1 2 ,(+ 1 2))
Error: (u8vector-set!) bad argument type: (unquote (+ 1 2))


In normal vectors allowing expressions
> would create ambiguities, as a vector can contain any value. For
> bytevectors
> one could argue that this situation does not exist, but I somehow find that
> it gets confusing. So consider the string-notation in literals a convience
> feature,
> nothing more. Generalizing this to the constructor procedure just invites
> type
> errors and hides mistakes, I think.
>

Fair enough. I was expecting this feature could replace string literals for
binary
protocols and such, but that might quickly get ambitious. I will stick to
doing things like

(blob->u4vector/shared (string->blob "\x00\x05hello")

K.