Mutation

[Henry G. Baker]

> Hmm, I may be missing the picture here, but I was imagining that
> make-array would create the array, and then without telling anyone what it was
> use a generator/initial-elements arg to fill it, freeze it, and then return it.
                                                   ^^^^^^^^^
> 
> This sounds almost the same as what you're saying there, which is why
> I'm wondering. :)
> 
> Brian

'Freezing' a mutable array is impossible, in general, because the
freezing function doesn't know how many other pointers there are to
this object.  If the array is linear, however, it carries with it a
proof of the nonexistence of other pointers, and it is therefore OK to
freeze the array.

-- 
Henry Baker
www/ftp directory URL:
ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/hb/hbaker/home.html