Re: introspection in SML

Pascal Costanza <pc@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
[...]
> You can also fine-tune things, including across compilation units, with 
> inline and notinline declarations, and compiler macros.

That is precisely what I don't want to do.  For example, in some case
you might like to inline a particular definition from a library, in
some other case you might not.  How do you know when it is really safe
to add an inline declaration for a function (CL makes certain
behaviors undefined when you add such a declaration, so you'd have to
analyze the program to know whether it is safe)?  What if that
function wasn't written by you?  What if you are using a library
written by someone else?  Do you go and modify your copy of the
library by adding / removing / chanding inline and notinline
declarations?  Do you bend over and copy a definition from a library
to another file (duplicating code) just to please the compiler?  These
kind of optimizations can be done by a machine.

-Vesa Karvonen