Re: What are the domains that lisp doesn't fit int?

Frank Buss <fb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

Duane Rettig wrote:

Huh? Syntax? There are two ways you can look at this: Either Common
Lisp defines no syntax for anything, and the issue becomes the "when
did you stop beating your wife?" question, or else it defines the
syntax for everything, to wit: "(<operator> <argument> ...)".

Maybe "syntax" was the wrong word for Lisp. What I mean is that in C it is
defined, that an integer can be converted to a pointer (which implies a
specific syntax, like casting to an int poiner). This pointer can then be
used to access memory, but it might not work.

This is just silly... you have a mechanism for converting
between pointers and integers that may or may not work, for any given
combination of platform, compiler and the values you try to
convert. This is neither portable or dependable. Further, even if it
did work consistently it might not do what you wanted - for example,
in the presence of a memory mapping unit.

I think you'll find that (most?) operating systems provide
low-level calls for direct access to memory that takes care of all
the details, including bypassing the MMU. In some cases, the calls may
even have been open-coded in the STANDARD compiler used with that os.

This is of course just as true for an OS written in LISP as in
C :-)

.

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