Algorithmic lists

[Richard Carlsson]

On Mon, 16 Oct 2000, Ulf Wiger wrote:

> We (a few lunatics at AXD 301) would like to see the lists module
> support an alternative formulation of lists.
> 
> A list could be expressed in the following manner:
> 
> [Head | fun(Head, F)]
>
> [...]
> 
> What'ya think? Awful? Elegant?
> 
> 
> BTW, Joe already posted something like this on the erlang-questions 
> list in March '99, but he was using zero-argument funs.
> 
> http://www.erlang.org/ml-archive/erlang-questions/199903/msg00013.html


They are indeed elegant, and Joe was correct - they're called lazy lists,
and should be implemented using zero-argument funs. To give a type
declaration of sorts:

	LazyList :: [] | [term() | fun() -> LazyList]

Writing a module 'lazy_lists' should be a doddle. In fact, I might do it
myself.

	/Richard Carlsson


Richard Carlsson (richardc@REDACTED)   (This space intentionally left blank.)
E-mail: Richard.Carlsson@REDACTED	WWW: http://www.csd.uu.se/~richardc/