Re: Using the search lists in more than just require & load

[layer@Franz.COM (Kevin Layer)]

>> Hello, It would be nice if most (better yet all) functions that accept a 
>> file as an argument used Allegro's search lists facility.  I realize that 
>> this might change the semantics of some of the functions slightly, but it 
>> would be extremely handy.

I don't agree that all functions which take a filename should use a
search list.  LOAD is the function which logically searches for files,
and I think we would run into trouble extending all functions to do
this, even something like OPEN.  Also, I don't think we would want to
do this unless the Common Lisp community as a whole endorsed it.

>> If this is not possible, then the next best 
>> thing would be a function, find-file, that would apply the search lists 
>> to a file and return a pathname of the first file found (or maybe a lists 
>> of all the matching pathnames found).  Nil can be returned if no file was 
>> found.  You must already have a function similar to find-file written; it 
>> is just a matter of documentation.

excl::process-search-list target search-list			[function]

	Search through SEARCH-LIST for TARGET and return a pathname
	representing the file if there is one found, nil otherwise.

This is an internal function, and I don't think it is too likely to
change.  I hope it does what you want, because this is the closest
thing I could find to what you want.

Kevin Layer, Franz Inc.         1995 University Avenue, Suite 275
layer@Franz.COM (internet)      Berkeley, CA  94704
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