Overwrite functions...

[Richard Gaskin]

Gilberto Cuba wrote:
> And overloading of functions???

Transcript does not support overloading of built-in commands and functions.

Many years ago I went to the mat on this one with the inventor of the 
Rev engine, Scott Raney. His explanation was that one of the key
ways the Rev engine performs many tasks about an order of magnitude
faster than other xTalks is because he's very stingy with the token
search space; that is, the fewer types of tokens that need to go
through its internal symbol table the faster the overall exection.

He took a good look at built-in commands and functions and decided
they were taking up far more time than they were worth, so he designed
his interpreter/compiler to forbid the practice of overriding them.

I argued with him and argued with him and demanded he rethink the
decision. Surely he was a madman, I thought at the time, to take such
power away.

He replied with his characteristic good humor and patience, and laid
down the glove gently: "Find me one case where it's absolutely
necessary and I'll consider it."

I was never able to turn up a practical use which could not be achieved 
through other means.

--
  Richard Gaskin
  Managing Editor, revJournal
  _______________________________________________________
  Rev tips, tutorials and more: http://www.revJournal.com