[plt-scheme] Re: Novice question: evaluating symbols

On Fri, Jan 8, 2010 at 9:21 AM, Carl Eastlund <carl.eastlund at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 8, 2010 at 10:10 AM, Grant Rettke <grettke at acm.org> wrote:
>> On Fri, Jan 8, 2010 at 8:17 AM, Robby Findler
>> <robby at eecs.northwestern.edu> wrote:
>>> Turning symbols into identifiers at runtime is fundamentally an
>>> eval-like thing and should be avoided in any well-designed language
>>> (to get in my high horse for a moment).
>>
>> Are there any good papers or posts on the topic?
>
> Well, there's my response to a similar question you asked about a year
> and a half ago:
> http://list.cs.brown.edu/pipermail/plt-scheme/2008-April/024140.html

Thanks.

I just meant the part about the "an eval-like thing and should be
avoided in any well-designed language" part though.

There are posts on the list and a lot of them include simply "just
don't do it" but I wonder if there is a single place that captures all
of the downsides, and when they are worth it.