DSSSL design choices - questions

Subject: DSSSL design choices - questions
From: "Reynolds, Gregg" <greynolds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 16:18:54 -0500
Why were vectors excluded from the expression language?  I would geuss
it has something to do with side-effects but I can't think of how.  I'm
converting some of the string manipulation routines from the Scheme
archives for use in DSSSL and are heavily used there.  (BTW, I'm finding
this an excellent method for both learning standard Scheme techniques
and learning how to "think without side-effects" in DSSSL.)

The code in the library uses a simple indexing technique but uses set!
to build its lookup vectors.  I tried to emulate it by faking a vector
of chars by building a string of length 256 using string-append, where
the charcode at each index point equals the index point (ie char 183 is
at position 183), but to do so I need to go from number to character.
#\183 gets an error (unless I'm misusing it?).  DSSSL provides a
"numeric-equiv:" character property (p 65), but I couldn't figure out
how to go in the other direction.  I ended up using a different
technique entirely, but this bugs me; I must have missed something
obvious.  Can anybody enlighten me?

Gregg Reynolds



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