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From: ab2r@midway.uchicago.edu (Marshall Abrams)
Subject: Re: Scheme or ML? (was Re: multiple values)
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References: <qijn30oeaoq.fsf@lambda.ai.mit.edu> <31FE3046.3E93@cs.cmu.edu> <4u38ip$b63@garbo.cs.indiana.edu> <32061C42.67A1@cs.cmu.edu>
Date: Tue, 6 Aug 1996 04:17:55 GMT
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In article <32061C42.67A1@cs.cmu.edu>, Robert Harper  <rwh@cs.cmu.edu> wrote:
>All Scheme programs *do* transliterate directly into ML.  It is a very
>simple matter to write a parser that translates Scheme code into ML
>code.  Every Scheme program will have type sv, where sv is a recursive
>datatype of the form
>
>	datatype sv = Nil | Cons of sv * sv | Func of sv list -> sv | ...

Yes--I did understand earlier in the thread; this is what I
thought was being claimed.  So anything I can do easily in Scheme,
I do easily in ML....as long as I first write the Scheme
datatype and all the Scheme functions.  (Not to mention the fact that
the ML version will be a lot uglier....Oh, yeah, unless I write a
parser.)

There's a sense of "expressiveness" according to which you're of
course correct.  Seems like there's a looser, more colloquial
sense in which you're not.

I personally have a deep respect and affection for both Scheme
and ML.  My ambivalence about their conflicting strengths and
weaknesses is what makes this thread as interesting as it is to
me.  But I do think that the two languages each have
strengths and weakenesses in their fundamental paradigms.

(My apologies to people like Jeff who may have heard all this
before too many times.  Couldn't help myself.)




-- 
Marshall Abrams                                    work: mabrams@smgusa.com
ab2r@midway.uchicago.edu                                 (312) 255-4107
   The World Wide Web means never having to buy another diskette;
             AOL, GNN, and Compuserve are my suppliers.
