[m-dev.] making cfloat__init/1 implicit

[Fergus Henderson]

On 16-Sep-1997, Peter Schachte <pets at students.cs.mu.oz.au> wrote:
> [fjh wrote:]
> > Currently you cannot pass a variable with inst `free' to a
> > procedure that expects an argument of inst `any'; instead
> > you must explicitly initialize it with a call to cfloat__init/1
> > or the like.
> 
> Aside:  it might be good to use for this a similar syntax to you the one you
> use for specifying a unification procedure for a type.  It seems nicer to me
> to make the user specify the `any initialization' procedure for a type, if
> there is to be one, than to use some convention about naming predicates.
> Also, having a custom unification predicate is somewhat similar to having an
> initialization predicate.

In general, I agree.  However, this is much harder to implement :-(

-- 
Fergus Henderson <fjh at cs.mu.oz.au>   |  "I have always known that the pursuit
WWW: <http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~fjh>   |  of excellence is a lethal habit"
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