Nimrod programming language

[Tomasz Rola]

On Mon, 11 May 2009, rumpf_a at web.de wrote:

> > One question I ask myself upon seeing a new language is if it is possible
> > to program amb (amb=ambiguous) operator in it. This page gives a very
> > nice, "code first" explanation of amb and how it is supposed to work:
> >
> > http://www.randomhacks.net/articles/2005/10/11/amb-operator
> >
> Hm. I am not sure either. To me, it looks like a constraint solver by
> using brute force.

Yes, kind of. From what I understand [1], it's goal is to simulate 
nondeterministic "get right answer in one try", only this "one try" 
requires browsing the solution space (because we have only "classic" 
hardware). It is easy to use amb in wrong way, but I can see some cases 
when I would like it.

[1] John McCarthy's paper still waits to be read by me, so... Ok, I have 
just had a look at it and it seems that Ruby implementation is a bit 
primitive compared to original concept. But still, this is what would be 
needed in most real life cases, I suppose.

I think ability to define amb would allow me to write more concise code. 
As far as I can tell, this kind of stuff plays more and more important 
role in my programing.

> It seems to require continuations. AFAIK
> continuations are extremely hard to implement efficiently, so probably
> it won't be done in Nimrod.

Pity, a little. But not really big problem for me. Nimrod may be 
interesting anyway, time will tell :-).

Regards,
Tomasz Rola

--
** A C programmer asked whether computer had Buddha's nature.      **
** As the answer, master did "rm -rif" on the programmer's home    **
** directory. And then the C programmer became enlightened...      **
**                                                                 **
** Tomasz Rola          mailto:tomasz_rola at bigfoot.com             **