It's a pervasive element, though. Which to me means two things. First, I wonder if there isn't a way of adding it (really) transparently into a language. Basically, whenever there's a possibility that a value is a function of old values, chances are that a previously used result is still available. Second, strategies can have massive time and space implications, but that's exactly why being explicit about them in the application's code in any way should be avoided at all costs: they shouldn't change the semantics, only pragmatics. Given that compilers already do this with simpler things (are my local variables actually on stack or are they kept in registers?), one has to wonder if this isn't one of those things that computers could perhaps figure out on their own in the future, just like we don't allocate registers by hand anymore either. In a similar way that, say, ATLAS finds out by trial and error the best way to perform FP linear algebra within a system of parametric code solutions. I think the "here's what I mean, give me a piece of code that does this" approach could have massive impact in the future. Transparent caching, glue code/plumbing, automatic algorithm selection based on result constraints etc. all seem like possible applications.
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