In article <s6ypvvukubq.fsf@aalh02.alcatel.com.au>,
Chris Bitmead uid(x22068) <Chris.Bitmead@alcatel.com.au> wrote:
>While Lisp does not store numbers as strings, I never know or care
>that this is the case. In fact I could write a Lisp implementation
>that does store numbers as strings, and a programmer using it would be
>none the wiser (apart from awful performance of course). Why do you
>want to fit everything in a string?? It buys you NOTHING.
It buys you not having to write string->number. I don't think that this is a
big win, but I could see how it would be useful to people who are not used
to thinking about data types. Any programmer should run screaming from it,
but I can see its value for end users. That explains why apps embed TCL, but
not why programmers write whole programs in it.
Paul Prescod
|