Re: No subject

[hartmut Goebel <hartmut@oberon.noris.de>]

acken (acken@informatik.uni-kl.de) schrieb:

 >> Meta-Programming w/o acces to the stack frames is rather worthless
 >:-(
 >
 >Why?  Inspecting stack frames is a very minor application of such a
 >`Ref' module.  You would still be able to inspect all of the heap and
 >global variables.

Having access to global variables only is rather worthless, since normaly
only few variables are declared globaly. Heap objects don't count here, since
they must be rooted somehow in a global var, too.

 >Of course, if you see `Ref' as a tool for exception handling or a
 >debugger, then you are lost.  Otherwise `Ref' is incredibly useful.

On, no! Admitted: These are quite usefull examples, but not the really
interesting ones.

I envision usage like a type-save sprinft-like routine (already showed in the
Meta-Programming paper). Image it's use: it can easily be enhanced to build
SQL statements (including propper quoting).

If you havn't done yet, I urge you :-) to have a look at the examples in the
paper!! If I remember correctly (dont' have the paper printed out, though)
there is even an example for a heap-obejects tree drawer -- usefull for
documentation purposes.

You surely admit: this is only usable, of also local variables and
parameteers are accessable -- thus the stack must be.

+++hartmut