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Re: Issue: REQUIRE-PATHNAME-DEFAULTS (Version 3)
- To: Dan L. Pierson <pierson%mist@MULTIMAX.ENCORE.COM>
- Subject: Re: Issue: REQUIRE-PATHNAME-DEFAULTS (Version 3)
- From: masinter.pa@Xerox.COM
- Date: 18 Oct 88 14:13 PDT
- Cc: gz%spt.entity.com@MULTIMAX.ENCORE.COM (Gail Zacharias), cl-cleanup@sail.stanford.edu
- In-reply-to: Dan L. Pierson <pierson%mist@MULTIMAX.ENCORE.COM>'s message of Tue, 18 Oct 88 15:27:25 EDT
The thing that distinguishes PROVIDE and REQUIRE from their obvious
implementations is that they have declarative rather than operative
semantics. Program walkers, DEFSYSTEM constructors as well as compilers
might be expected to pay special heed to PROVIDE and REQUIRE, but not pay
any special heed to direct manipulation of *MODULES*.
We should be careful in the standard to distinguish between what things
mean and how they may be implemented, but doubly so in the case of macros
and special forms that may get processed at times other than EVAL-time.