Re: Reference and First-Class Function

Dimitre Novatchev wrote:

  Hi Dimitre,

> >     http://www.fgeorges.org/exslt2-wiki/Reference
> >     http://www.fgeorges.org/exslt2-wiki/First-Class_Function

> I find that relating the topic of  "reference" in XPath to the topic
> of "higher order functions" is both too general and round-about.
> Remember that the need for references originally arised from needing
> them in higher-order functions -- for currying. Now we are trying to
> implement "reference" by currying a function. This is a complete
> circle.

  I don't think so.  What is proposed is to return a new first-class
function to provide references.  Not to curry an existing one.

>http://lists.fourthought.com/pipermail/exslt/2008-December/001705.html

  Sorry, I hadn't read that email yet at the time I wrote the above
pages.  I am going to respond to this email.

> "Implementations 
> FXSL implements first-class functions and provides several
> higher-order function. It is entirely written in standard XSLT 2.0. 
> Retrieved from
> "http://www.fgeorges.org/exslt2-wiki/First-Class_Function""

> FXSL never implemented this even simply due to the fact that FXSL
> existed 6-7 years before this text was written.

  Yes, sure.  I say that it "implements first-class functions," not
this (not-ready-yet) extension.  I can maybe make that more explicit.

> Finally, we don't need to re-invent HOF in XSLT and implement it in
> less portable ways while they have already been here for 6 years.
> Let's save the time of developers and allow them to concentrate on
> features that are not yet implemented.

  Well, I really like FXSL, but I think the problem with currying is
precisely because it uses only standard XSLT.  Being portable is of
course very important, but I do think that HOF could benefit from
having dedicated first-class function objects.

  Regards,

-- 
Florent Georges
http://www.fgeorges.org/