Lazy lists

Andrey andrey.paramonov@REDACTED
Tue Dec 8 01:16:10 CET 2009


Erlang documentation gives the following definition for lazy
(infinite) list:

ints_from(N) ->
    fun() ->
        [N | ints_from(N+1)]
    end.

I tried to implement basic operations like map, filter and fold using
this function, and it was quite hard. On one the forums I found
another definition (by Joe Armstrong, I believe):

ints_from(K) -> [K | fun() -> ints_from(K+1) end].

With that one it's much easier to implement the functions above (at
least for me). I'm wondering if anybody uses the first definition, and
how map/filter/fold should look like then? What benefits does the
first definition give us in comparison to the second one?

Thanks,
Andrey


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