On Wed, 16 Apr 1997 17:09:56 GMT, alaric@abwillms.demon.co.uk (Alaric
B. Williams) wrote:
>>Ok, most people would put C++ first in the so-called "low-level" power
>>stakes. But it doesn't all go C++'s way. You define low level power as
>>the power to control implementation. Consider that C++ is a strictly
>>stack based language. Unlike Scheme, (or assembler with some tricky
>>mucking around), you can't have multiple "stack-like" environments all
>>existing at once. (i.e. continuations and call/cc).
>>
>>This is a powerful low level feature that C took away from assembler,
>>but Scheme allows.
Iiiii know what I found a little odd about this. Yeah, I don't really
think call/cc is a low level feature. It is a window to something
usually totally hidden by the implementation, but it's not low
level control of the implementation, since you don't know/tell
anything you don't need to when you program continuations. I mean,
accessing the bits of an integer is low level, but being able to
dynamically link libraries in is more a widening of control than of
making control lower-level, IYSWIM...
ABW
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Alaric B. Williams Internet : alaric@abwillms.demon.co.uk
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