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Issue: DECLARE-TYPE-FREE (Version 4)
- To: masinter.pa@Xerox.COM
- Subject: Issue: DECLARE-TYPE-FREE (Version 4)
- From: Jon L White <jonl@lucid.com>
- Date: Tue, 27 Sep 88 17:22:11 PDT
- Cc: CL-Cleanup@sail.stanford.edu
- In-reply-to: masinter.pa@Xerox.COM's message of 22 Sep 88 22:25 PDT <880922-222553-3848@Xerox>
The comment about Lucid's warning messages made me wonder -- it *isn't*
invoked by the sample code in the problem description. Consequently,
I've amended the statement of the problem in what is intended to be a
very friendly way (I also laid more of the "blame" at the clear
proscription in CLtL p158, rather than on the percentage of people who
think it "invalid".) And I added "setf" to the "setq" part of the
proposal -- probably one should understand the unqualified phrase
"variable references" to mean "variable updating references" as well
as "variable accessing references".
Looking over the past mail, I saw a few more loose tidbits that needed
to be cleaned up; in particular the msg:
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 88 19:04:46 CDT
From: David N Gray <Gray@DSG.csc.ti.com>
suggested the need for a re-wording of the "Rationale" and "Benefits"
section, and I extend this to the "Esthetics" section too.
Finally, I added a bit to the discussion section, mostly reflecting
the current state regarding "compilers" that use specialized-storage
for type-declared variables (i.e., Lucid's "Production" compiler).
By the bye, I'm not happy with the part that allows nested type specifiers
to be overly general. I'd prefer that the inner ones be subtypes of the
outter ones, so that the program:
(locally (declare (type x fixnum))
(locally (declare (type x (or bit package)))
(setq x 1)))
would be "in error"; i.e., inner types should be more sensitive to the
outter constraints. But this would not be a "friendly amendment" or
minor cleanup; so I haven't done anything about it.
-- JonL --
!
Issue: DECLARE-TYPE-FREE
References: CLtL p.158
DECLARATION-SCOPE
Category: CLARIFICATION/ADDITION
Edit history: Version 1, 18-Sep-88, Moon
Version 2, 22-Sep-88, Moon
(small edits to reflect mail discussion)
Version 3, 22-Sep-88, Masinter
Version 4, 27-Sep-88, JonL
Problem description:
Section 9.2 of CLtL, p158, says that a declaration specifier like
(TYPE type var1 var2 ...) "... affects only variable bindings".
Since declarations can occur in contexts other than establishing
"variable bindings", most people interpret this statement to mean
that type declarations not in such context are either (1) completely
to be ignored, or (2) invalid CL syntax. Thus both of the following
forms would be suspect in that the type declarations could not have
any effect:
(if (and (typep x 'fixnum) (typep y 'fixnum))
(locally (declare (fixnum x y)) ;LOCALLY does not bind
...algorithm using x and y...) ; any variables.
...similar algorithm using x and y...)
(let ((y 'foo))
(setq y 10)
(let ((x 5)) ;'y' is not being bound in
(declare (fixnum y)) ; this particular context.
(incf y)
...random algorithm...))
Proposal (DECLARE-TYPE-FREE:ALLOW):
Avoid the phrase "affects only variable bindings". Clarify that a type
declaration means that it is an error for the value of the variable not
to be a member of the declared type, within the scope of the declaration.
Clarify that the above programs are valid, and that this kind of
declaration means the same thing as wrapping a THE form around every
reference to the variable, including modifying references by setq or setf.
Clarify that if nested type declarations refer to the same variable, then
the value of the variable must be a member of the intersection of the
declared types.
Rationale:
It enables optimizing compilers to make use of the otherwise ignored
type information. Many people have often asked for it, and there is
no strong reason to forbid it.
Current practice:
Lucid implements DECLARE-TYPE-FREE:ALLOW already; but under some
circumstances the compiler issues a warning message that such usage
is an extension to Common Lisp.
Cost to Implementors:
None, it is valid to ignore type declarations.
Cost to Users:
None, this is a compatible addition.
Cost of non-adoption:
Common Lisp will be less self-consistent.
Benefits:
Programmers will be able to use type declaration to express their
intent, rather than having to manually insert THE wrappers around
every reference.
Esthetics:
It is a simpler interpretation for type declaration specifiers, with
fewer special cases; hence reduces the number of exceptions in the
language.
Discussion:
Another cleanup issue, DECLARATION-SCOPE, addresses the scope of
declarations. This proposal carefully uses the phrase "within the
scope of the declaration" to avoid confounding the two issues.
This issue has been discussed at the Fort Collins X3J13 meeting in
November 1987, and at length on the various electronic mailing lists.
At least one current implementation is able to generate more efficient
code when declarations are associated with a particular binding, since
it then has the option to choose type-specific specialized storage for
the runtime value of the variable. So, for example,
(let ((x v)) (declare (type float x)) (+ x x))
is sometimes more efficient than
(let ((x v)) (locally (declare (type float x)) (+ x x)))
However, the local type declarations allowed by this proposal do
provide some useful information, even if it is not the *most* useful.
It is possible for a sufficiently "smart" compiler to infer the
equivalent of a "binding declaration" when it can ascertain that the
type of the binding value -- 'v' above -- is commensurate with the
type locally declared over the scope of usage of the variable.
It may be useful for a compiler to issue a warning whenever it finds
nested type declarations referring to the same variable and the
intersection of the declared types is null.