GNU bug report logs - #6878
bool-vectors of length 0 signal error when aref/aset the 0th element

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From: MON KEY <monkey <at> sandpframing.com>
To: Juanma Barranquero <lekktu <at> gmail.com>
Cc: cyd <at> stupidchicken.com, schwab <at> linux-m68k.org, 6878 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, monnier <at> iro.umontreal.ca
Subject: bug#6878: bool-vectors of length 0 signal error when aref/aset the 0th element
Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2010 14:01:31 -0400

On Thu, Aug 19, 2010 at 10:23 PM, Juanma Barranquero <lekktu <at> gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 20, 2010 at 04:01, MON KEY <monkey <at> sandpframing.com> wrote:
>
>> Emacs lisp doesn't and I can think of no good reasons to create 0
>> length bool-vectors.
>>
>> Can any one else?
>
> Of course. Eliminating special cases, for example.
>

Thank you for taking the time to provide this example.  If you look
back you may notice I've already acknowledged that there is indeed
utility in 0 length vectors, e.g.:

,----
| I can imagine there are situations where making 0 length vanilla
| vector has utility because these are "closer" to list representation
| w/re the _type_ of contents they can hold and can be reasonable
| coerced w/ less representational loss of data but this is not the
| case w/ bool-vectors because they are _limited_ by the type of data
| they can represenet.
`----

And, I gave an example of the pathology:

,----
| (let* ((ab (make-bool-vector 1 t))
|       (abeq (cons ab ab)))
|  (concat (car abeq) (cdr abeq)))
| ;
| ;=> Debugger entered--Lisp error: (wrong-type-argument integerp t)
`----


> (defun split-vec (v p)
>  (list (substring v 0 p)
>        (substring v p (length v))))
>

Where is the boole-vector ???

(substring (make-bool-vector 18 t) 0)
;=> Debugger entered--Lisp error: (wrong-type-argument arrayp #&18"\377\377")

My question was _specifcally_ w/re to bool-vectors
one _can not_ take the substring of a bool-vector.

> and you can do
>
>  (apply 'vconcat (split-vec V N))
>
> for N in -length(V)..length(V) and get back V

FWIW, your friendly (mis)interpreation of the issue helps bolster my
position...  Which is (in part) that it isn't at all obvious that a
bool-vector is not _really_ a vector and behaves differently in most
respects from other the vector-likes.

Your example works for neither 0 length bool-vectors:

(apply 'vconcat (split-vec (make-bool-vector 0 t) 9))
;=> Debugger entered--Lisp error: (wrong-type-argument arrayp #&0"")

Nor the less pathological variety:

(apply 'vconcat (split-vec (make-bool-vector 18 t) 9))
;=> Debugger entered--Lisp error: (wrong-type-argument arrayp #&18"\377\377")

>
>     Juanma

--
/s_P\

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