hg: lambda/lambda/langtools: Next round of implementation reflecting the latest 'State of the Lambda' draft; implemented features are:

[Joe Darcy]

Neal Gafter wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 23, 2010 at 11:17 AM, maurizio cimadamore <
> maurizio.cimadamore at oracle.com> wrote:
>   

[snip]

>
> That's a confusing description.  On the one hand, you say that the compiler
> uses all information available.  On the other, you say what techniques the
> compiler does not use.  It isn't clear how to write a compile to "use all
> the info it can" while avoiding trial-and-error.  I can imagine increasingly
> complex schemes that disambiguate particular use cases without
> trial-and-error, but it would be better to have, once and for all, and clear
> specification of what precisely the language is and is not.  Then the
> compiler will use whatever techniques are required to implement that
> specification.
>
>   

Neal, surely you are aware of times when it is helpful for compiler work 
to be exploratory and inform the specification when it is later written 
or refined.

-Joe