miscellaneous questions about declarations and type specfiers

[Jon L White <edsel!jonl@labrea.Stanford.EDU>]

re: 1)is there any portable way to obtain the expansion of a type
    specifier (FOO ...), given that FOO was defined by
     (deftype FOO  ...)

I don't think so.  Sounds reasonable enough though -- I'll put it on my
personal list of items which ought to be submitted to the X3J13 Cleanup
committee for consideration.  [I already have 7 or 8 issues relating
to the type system]

    2) is there any portable way to ask if DEC is a legitimate declaration
    specifier in an implementation (including the possibility that DEC
    has been legitimized with 
	 (PROCLAIM '(DECLARATION DEC))

Again I don't think so.  Maybe this ought to go in with a proposal for some
functions that will query the global database relevant to proclamations and 
declarations (e.g., has a particular variable been proclaimed special?  what
is the current global settings of the OPTIMIZE qualities? and so on.)

    3) is there any portable way to ask if a symbol or list S is a legitimate
    type specifier in an implementation?

Guy Steele circulated several pages of "Clarifications" in December 1985, 
in which he proposed adding a function TYPE-SPECIFIER-P.  I don't see it
on the current agenda of the X3J13 Cleanup committee; consequently it has 
been on my personal list of items that ought to be submitted "soon"


-- JonL --