Re: Issue: REQUIRE-PATHNAME-DEFAULTS (version 1)

[David N Gray <Gray@DSG.csc.ti.com>]

> Unfortunately, the file loading feature of REQUIRE is specified such
> that it is inherently non-portable and environment dependent.

I think this could be specified in a portable way.  Suppose we say that
the second argument of REQUIRE is a string or list of strings.  Each
string must begin with a letter and contain only letters and digits.  Then
if the indicated module is not present, REQUIRE calls the loader, using
each string as the name field of a pathname, defaulting the version to
:NEWEST and the rest of the pathname components to be the same as the file
in which the REQUIRE form was found, truncating the name if necessary to
make it legal.  In other words, it loads additional files from the same
directory.  I think this would work on all five of the file systems that I
use.  Would it be useful enough to be worthwhile?

> Change the "Put in seven extremely random user interface commands"
> discussion to suggest that PROVIDE should be put at the end of the
> file rather than the beginning.

I agree with Zacharias that it's OK for PROVIDE to be at the beginning,
but an aborted load needs to un-do it.

  -- David Gray