Accessing func_name from inside a function

[Scott David Daniels]

Eyal Lotem wrote:
> By the way, the "real" problem here is referencing by name, rather than
> using "true" references. Which is the result of using a textual language.
> The "real" solution would be to store real-references to the function and
> only present the name in a graphical interface.

There is a problem with this attitude (to which I used to subscribe).
Just as what constitutes a mathematical proof is a social agreement
among mathematicians, programmers need to be able to read programs
by other programmers.  People do not communicate in data structures.
I worked with LML, a lazy ML variant that (among other things) allowed
specification of the print form of structures.  I wound up debugging
(for a nasty 12 hours) a program which printed identically to the
correct program, but was not, in fact, the correct program.  That one
experience has convinced me that programs are defined in print, not
structures.

--Scott David Daniels
scott.daniels at acm.org