The ScopeTransform experiment was a good one, but I think that scope transformation should be part of XSet, not a separate operation. We’ll work on that … and it turns out pretty nicely. More to do, of course, and things are a bit fuzzy, but I think we’re on a good path.

Our previous work left me thinking about whether there would be lots of redundant Scope Transform bytes needed in all the records. I chatted with Chet about it, and thought about it a bit more, and I think we’re OK. This article will bring you up to date on the thinking. No new code, but I will include the complete listings as of now just to keep you up to speed.

We’re walking a narrow path bounded by theory and practice. This time we’ll do some work on those records with holes in them, like the first-name set. In so doing, we’ll try not just to hack in the code, but to keep it consistent with our understanding of the math. We don’t really understand the requirements, or the theory. Can we possibly succeed?

We’ll push forward with Scope Transformation ideas. First step will be to make the :restrict operation return a ScopeTransform set. That part will be easy. Then we start thinking about just what that :contents method means. Still, good progress for a little time in an airplane.

We need to look around a bit, to decide where to take this project. To do so, we need to get a bit more clarity on the big picture, and the small one.