[TAO] value() to obtain pointer functionality

[Richard Gaskin]

Mike Kerner wrote:

> The problem we have with arrays is that they don't let us really use
> indirection, i.e. pointers/handles.  It's a lot easier to write generic
> handlers for a screen full of controls with pointers/handles.  "DO" is ok,
> but it's the same problem we've always had with "DO", namely it's slow.
>  It's very, very flexible, but it's slow.

Your post suggests an interesting angle:

Before xTalk had associative arrays, I used to work really hard to be 
able to have arbitrary numbers of name-value pairs in structures that 
were gracefully usable.  Then when arrays came along so many things 
became easy which had been difficult and slow before.

So with the sorts of things you'd like to do with pointers, what might 
we imagine that would be to arrays what arrays are to "do" in terms of 
efficient paradigm shift for certain ranges of problems?

Maybe there is indeed a very different way of working waiting to be 
discovered and put to use.

Maybe it could become achievable within the time frame of Open Language....

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Systems
  Software Design and Development for Desktop, Mobile, and Web
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