Modifying DIRECTORY

[berger@cs.uchicago.edu]

Thanks to all concerned for the response to my simple problem. I see
that I didn't make things quite clear enough and some confusion
resulted.

First of all, I'd say using the ADVICE facility looks like the
cleanest solution. I believe Franz even suggests ADVICE as a way of
modifying compiled code.

I should have been a little more explicit in my original problem
description. I'm building a CL system which uses GARNET, a GUI
developed by worthy people at CMU. It comes with many built-in gadgets
including a file-loading gadget which presents a scrolling menu of
files which can be selected for loading. The items in the menu are
built by invoking DIRECTORY on a user-specified directory. The GARNET
code assumes the returned pathnames are in alphabetic order. I wanted
to get the file-loading gadget to produce menu items in alphabetic
order without altering and recompiling the GARNET code which is used
by others, or making my own copy of the code, or ... Hence the
suggestions involving defining a new SORTED-DIRECTORY function or
using the package system, while fine for other circumstances, didn't
fit my problem.

Thanks again.

-Jeff B.