Re: Scheme conference report

[Kent Dybvig <dyb%unc.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa>]

Relative order of evaluation of the expressions in a combination is
not specified for at least two reasons:

    1)	It is poor coding style to depend on order of evaluation.  If
	there is an ordering constraint it should be made explicit
	by using "let" or some such.

    2)	It is a severe constraint on the implementation for the language
	to specify an evaluation order.  What is easy for one machine
	model or architecture may be difficult for another.

Note that Pascal and Scheme are not alone; neither C nor Common Lisp
specify the order of evaluation.

	Kent Dybvig