🚀 go-pugleaf

David Cok asks:

   Here is a real-life problem which advocates of various languages/typing 
   systems are invited to comment on. 

   [stuff deleted]

   The problem is what to do with the other arguments to f.  One solution is to
   allow creation of functions on the fly.  Given, say, myf of four arguments,
   one would write
		   optimum_x = optimize(myf(#1,a,b,c))
   in which myf(#1,a,b,c) is a function of one argument obtained by supplying
   values for three of the four arguments of f.  

In ML, if you choose the argument order of myf right, currying will do the job.
Thus we have

   fn myf x y z = ... expression ...
   ...
   optimise( myf X Y )

optimise is called with a one-parameter function, obtained (as it were) by
``specialising'' myf with the known values of x (ie X) and y (ie Y). Since you
can write argument-jigglers easily, or use lambda-expressions, there's no
problem. [ML is statically typed].

[You can do essentially the same trick in Pop11, Scheme, or Common Lisp, but 
they are not statically typed.]
--

Regards, Kers.      | "You're better off  not dreaming of  the things to come;
Caravan:            | Dreams  are always ending  far too soon."