[racket-dev] literal strings and numbers are now interned

'case' seems a lot more useful now than it used to be.

Robby

On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 10:18 AM, Matthew Flatt <mflatt at cs.utah.edu> wrote:
> As of v5.2.0.4, Racket's reader and `datum->syntax' interns literal
> strings, byte strings, regexps, characters, and numbers. (Also,
> `equal?' now works in the obvious way for regexps.)
>
> For example, `(eq? "hello" "hello")' will always return true, since the
> two literal "hello"s are interned to the same string. Of course, it's
> best not to write code that depends on this subtle fact, but the
> reader's interning behavior is specified.
>
> The change is intended to simplify cross-module optimization. The
> compiler can now inline an inexact number bound to `pi', for example,
> without potentially changing the semantics of a program that uses
> something like `(eq? pi pi)'. Probably no good program would break with
> cross-module inlining of numbers even without interning, but it seems
> simplest to dispense with the question by always interning.
>
> Along the same lines, I think it's unlikely that good programs are
> affected by the `read' interning change, although I had to fix some
> Racket tests that specifically check `eq?'-related behavior. Since
> `datum->syntax' also interns literals, it's possible that the change
> defeats some use of 3-D syntax that depends on the identity of a string
> or number; again, though, that seems unlikely.
>
> Finally, it's unlikely that interning alone will provide any
> performance improvement. Fewer copies of strings and numbers may be
> retained, but those savings probably just pay for the overhead of the
> intern table.
>
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