"David N. Smith" <dnsmith at watson.ibm.com> writes:
>> I've always wanted a general constructor, like {2.3.4} but which produces
>> things other than arrays. Maybe someone has done one and I haven't seen it
>> (or, as my age progresses, it's lost in the fog).

Not quite what you asked for, but I once implemented a (variable)
multi-dimensional Array class in Tek Smalltalk, with a new: method
taking an Array of SmallIntegers representing the size of the dimension
associated with that position.  So MultiArray new: { 5, 5, 5 } would
create a 5X5X5 Array, and  MultiArray new: { 5, 1, 5} would create a
5X1X5 Array.  Similarly, there was a withValues: creator method taking
an Array (potentially of recursively nested Arrays) containing the
intial values, where nil or {} meant not to initialize that dimension.

It was fun to play with; I should see if I still have the code somewhere
(probably on an 8 inch floppy, with no drive to read it around).
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Bruce Cohen,                               |  email: cohenb at gemstone.com
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