Higher-Order Programming in C

[Jonathan Bartlett]

Just thought you all might be interested in an article I just finished
about higher-order functions, and their use in Scheme and C:

http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-highfunc.html

This is part of a series of articles I'm writing about functional
programming and how it can be used to even in procedural languages.
This even includes a section on object-oriented programming in C (not
C++) and Scheme.

Jon
----
Learn to program using Linux assembly language

http://www.cafeshops.com/bartlettpublish.8640017

[Eric Sosman]

Re: Higher-Order Programming in C



Jonathan Bartlett wrote:[color=blue]
> Just thought you all might be interested in an article I just finished
> about higher-order functions, and their use in Scheme and C:
>
> http://www-128.ibm.com/developerwork...-highfunc.html
>
> This is part of a series of articles I'm writing about functional
> programming and how it can be used to even in procedural languages.
> This even includes a section on object-oriented programming in C (not
> C++) and Scheme.[/color]

Mostly, it reads like a Scheme advertisement -- "If
you want Lisp, you know where to find it." The C code
could do with some cleaning up; in particular, the manual
imitation of a closure invokes undefined behavior. It is
flat-out incorrect to invoke a function like

int nextval(void *environment);

via a function pointer described as

typedef void * (*generic_funct ion)(void *, ...);

without first converting the pointer to agree with the
type of the called function. And no, this isn't some kind
of "academic" concern, pertinent only to the DeathStation
line: there are real computers on which this will fail.

--
Eric.Sosman@sun .com

[jacob navia]

Re: Higher-Order Programming in C

Jonathan Bartlett wrote:[color=blue]
> Just thought you all might be interested in an article I just finished
> about higher-order functions, and their use in Scheme and C:
>
> http://www-128.ibm.com/developerwork...-highfunc.html
>
> This is part of a series of articles I'm writing about functional
> programming and how it can be used to even in procedural languages. This
> even includes a section on object-oriented programming in C (not C++)
> and Scheme.
>
> Jon
> ----
> Learn to program using Linux assembly language
> http://www.cafeshops.com/bartlettpublish.8640017[/color]

Very interesting message.
Thanks for the tip.

jacob

[Rob Thorpe]

Re: Higher-Order Programming in C

Jonathan Bartlett <johnnyb@eskimo .com> wrote in message news:<424c62b4$ 1@news.tulsacon nect.com>...[color=blue]
> Just thought you all might be interested in an article I just finished
> about higher-order functions, and their use in Scheme and C:
>
> http://www-128.ibm.com/developerwork...-highfunc.html
>
> This is part of a series of articles I'm writing about functional
> programming and how it can be used to even in procedural languages.
> This even includes a section on object-oriented programming in C (not
> C++) and Scheme.
>[/color]

Very interesting. I would write many programs in Scheme if I could
easily link them to outside libraries like I can with C.

I think that there are slightly more safe/pleasant ways to do many of
the things done in this article, but I can't remember them right now.
I'll post them if I remember them.

[Jonathan Bartlett]

Re: Higher-Order Programming in C

[color=blue]
> Very interesting. I would write many programs in Scheme if I could
> easily link them to outside libraries like I can with C.[/color]

Many Scheme implementations allow this with little difficulty. Chicken
can actually parse some C prototypes directly. Implementing glue code
is pretty simple in most of them.

Jon