Abstract patterns

[David Hopwood]

Bjorn Gustavsson wrote:
> If you tell me where I can find the latest version of the paper,
> I'll have another look at it.
> 
> What I meant by the phrase "implement efficiently" is that performance
> should be comparable to that of records. If that indeed would be possible
> to achive without inlining, we would be more interested in implementing
            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> abstract patterns.

This seems like an odd way of deciding whether and how to implement a
language feature. The preferred process IMHO is something like:

1. Design the feature, paying attention (among other criteria) to whether
   it *would* be feasible to implement efficiently given a bit of effort.
2. Document the feature.
3. Implement the feature naively.
4. Gain experience with how people are using the feature, and a body of
   code on which optimizations can be tested.
5. Optimize the implementation.

in that order.

-- 
David Hopwood <david.nospam.hopwood@REDACTED>