Re: about genricity

From: Ken Anderson <kanderso_at_bbn.com>
Date: Tue, 17 Sep 1996 11:20:59 -0400

  
  I've found that the main challenge in writing objects is when they
  contain slots referring to other objects, and there can be multiple
  references to a given object. I've ended up doing a topological sort
  so that (absent any cycles) objects can be re-created in an order that
  guarantees all the component objects exist before the container
  objects need them.

To work with cycles install each object in a database (hash table) before
its written form is generated. Then when writing the object, if it is in
the hash table, write something like "(db 7)" where 7 is the index of the
object.

Other important issues are reducing consing required to read or write the
objects, and loading old versions of objects.

k
Received on Tue Sep 17 1996 - 17:23:07 CEST