On 6/18/07, Stavros Macrakis <macrakis at alum.mit.edu> wrote:
> Personally, I think we should get rid of use_fast_arrays,
> which changes Maxima's behavior incompatibly.
Well, I have mixed feelings about use_fast_arrays.
On the one hand, the "fast arrays" stuff seems to have
been an afterthought and its presence is confusing,
and buggy.
On the other hand, use_fast_arrays causes arrays to
be assigned as symbol values instead of hanging them
on the property list. On the whole I'm generally in favor
of that. So in the interest of having arrays that are values,
maybe we should cut out all the code for use_fast_arrays=false
instead of vice versa.
That said, there is actually not too many instances of
use_fast_arrays in the source code; I think it would
be not too much trouble to cut it out (one way or another).
(I'm not all that attached to the arrays-as-values business;
I'd be almost equally happy to expunge use_fast_arrays=true
as use_fast_arrays=false.)
> And of course we should fix the compiler so
> it compiles Kill properly.
Agreed.
Robert