Re: Issue: CONSTANT-SIDE-EFFECTS (no proposal)

[masinter.pa@Xerox.COM]

While it is certainly possible to address the issue by making "constant" a
first-class run-time accessable property of data, I don't think we are
going to make a lot of progress if we choose that direction.

I think what we need here is a more accurate specification of what actually
is allowed and what is not, even though "constant" is not a first-class
attribute of data.

It is harder to specify, certainly. The specification might require the
introduction of a conceptual construct. There is no need, however, to
require implementations to actually reify the concept in order to make use
of it.