[REBOL] Re: [list!] Block vs List
From: greggirwin::mindspring::com at: 19-Jun-2004 6:36
Hi Patrick,
PPln> What is the difference between a block and a list?
From the Core Manual:
Closely related data types are hash! and list!. They are used in much the same way
as block values, but have special capabilities. List values are designed to handle
modification of lists more quickly than block values, and hash values are designed
handle data lookup and hash indexing of data. These are useful when dealing with
large data sets.
Lists values are not a direct substitute for blocks. There are a couple of differences
between blocks and lists:
Inserting into a list modifies its reference to just after the point of insertion.
Removing the element currently referenced in a list causes the reference to reset to
the tail of the list
Also, at this time, list! is known to be subject to a couple bugs
(REMOVE leaves list! at an invalid index, SORT/SKIP may crash).
-- Gregg
