[Haskell-cafe] Specify array or list size?

[Sebastian Sylvan]

On 5/7/05, Daniel Carrera <dcarrera at digitaldistribution.com> wrote:
at there is, but this wasn't evident atll to /me/ from the names.
> 
> I must also confess that after hearing your explanation I still don't
> understand the linguistic distinction. 

Basically, when I see the word "array" I think of a field of cells.
It's the structure itself and not the contents. Then, of course, you
could use an array to hold a "list of names" or something, but array
is still the underlying structure used as a list (or a buffer, at
least that's how I think abut it.
A "list" is, for me, more of a "logical" entity (as opposed to
structural). It's a sequence of "stuff" not a particular way to store
it (singly-linked, doubly-linked, arraylists etc.).

Anyway, that's just how I naturally "feel" when I hear those two
words. Arrays are a monolithic field of memory cells, lists are
sequences of values.


/S

-- 
Sebastian Sylvan
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