[racket] Redefining selectors - another newbie question

On 07/01/2010 08:14 AM, Brad Long wrote:
> 
> Yes, that makes sense, for example: (display pt.x)

You might want to check Racket's object system. It's different from
structs, but is at least the kind of abstraction you're probably
thinking of.

(define point% (class object%
  (init-field x y)
  (super-new))

(define pt (new point% (x 1) (y 2)))

(get-field x pt) => 1
(get-field y pt) => 2

(define point-x (class-field-accessor point x))

(point-x pt) => 1

----------------------------

The problem with the syntax pt.x is that there is nothing in that syntax
to indicate what type pt is. (point-x pt) is the C++ equivalent of
((Point)pt).x and normally pt.x automatically divines the type in C++.
Not so in racket. The speed overhead of having "types" like that, which
the compiler can introspect to identify certain properties such as what
fields there are and what they do, that overhead is significant, so the
default is that you have to specify that information manually in your
code. That overhead might be smaller later though, and it's nothing
you'd ever have to worry about for all but the most lean of
applications. If you're interested in learning how Racket can perform
that kind of type divination, you might consider learning the "typed
racket" language. It's under active development now, but already is
capable of a lot of that sort of type magic.

http://docs.racket-lang.org/ts-guide/index.html