Collections, messages, and blocks... and Databases

Blaine Buxton rightly wants to delay his collection calculations, i.e. use objects as a means for lazy evaluation. This is something they're good for, but doesn't get much attention.

In fact this is just what Avi Bryant does in ROE (Relational Object Expressions). Consider that a relational database is essentially a collection, and often a large one, that you would like to operate on efficiently. And so his collection messages are simply delayed as long as needed.

I would expect some of the implementation ideas behind ROE would be applicable to Blaine's intention.