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From: Joerg Digulla <Joerg.Digulla@rz.ruhr-uni-bochum.de>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.beta
Subject: WHY no multi-dimensional arrays?
Date: Thu, 29 May 1997 23:13:41 -0700
Organization: Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum, Rechenzentrum
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Greetings!

Does anybody know why there are no multi-dimensional arrays in BETA?

I know that I could write some pattern simulating such arrays, but no
technique I can think of has the striking elegance of a definition like,
e.g.,

(# a: [x][y]@integer;
        .
        .
    a[1][2] -> ...
        .
        .            #)

Besides this "elegance" there are of course reasons like performance and
portability to expect BETA have multi-dim. arrays as part of the basic
language definition.

So is there any good reason that BETA does not have multi-dimensional
arrays?

Bye! J.D.

-----------------------------------
Joerg Digulla
Sumperkamp 9-15
D-44801 Bochum

Joerg.Digulla@rz.ruhr-uni-bochum.de