Record selectors

[Ulf Wiger]

On Mon, 13 Jan 2003, Vlad Dumitrescu (EAW) wrote:

>Hello again,
>
>I reviewed this whole thread and found plenty of good ideas
>about ways to improve the record handling. And also a
>comprehensive list of possible drawbacks. One important
>point is that it's probably not an Ericsson priority to fix
>this.

Joe Armstrong, who is no longer at Ericsson, once drew an
idea about efficient and safe records on my whiteboard.

AFAIR, each record would carry its own dictionary which
would not be copied -- only referenced -- when the record is
updated. I think I also recall concluding that Joe's
"records" could be made syntactically compatible with
today's records. One would probably still use a new
(cleaner) syntax though, esp. since there would be no need
to specify the record type in each operation.

Perhaps Joe could recap the idea on this list, and perhaps
explain what was wrong with it -- since he has not
aggressively pushed the idea through?  (:

/Uffe
-- 
Ulf Wiger, Senior Specialist,
   / / /   Architecture & Design of Carrier-Class Software
  / / /    Strategic Product & System Management
 / / /     Ericsson Telecom AB, ATM Multiservice Networks