Issue: DELETE-NONEXISTENT-FILE (Version 1)

[Kent M Pitman <KMP@STONY-BROOK.SCRC.Symbolics.COM>]

The enclosed proposal was distributed in hardcopy by Kathy at the
last X3J13 meeting. I just recently acquired electronic copy.
It happens that I don't think the writeup is clear and I don't
agree with the proposal, but I wanted to first get it into the
archives before discussing it. -kmp

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Issue:        DELETE-NONEXISTENT-FILE
References:   DELETE-FILE (p. 424)
Category:     CHANGE
Edit history: 5-OCT-88, Version 1 by Chapman


Problem Description:

An implementation determines whether an attempt to delete a nonexistent
file is considerd to be successful.

Proposal (DELETE-NONEXISTENT-FILE:RETURN-VALUE)

DELETE-FILE can currently return a non-nil value in the case of
success, or signal an error in the case of failure. The proposed change
is that DELETE-FILE return a non-nil value when the file exists and
is successfully deleted, nil when the file doesn't exist, and signals
an error otherwise.

Rationale:

This change allows users to portably depend on a return value when
DELETE-FILE is executed on a nonexistent file.

Current Practice:


Adoption Cost:

Minimal.

Benefits:

This change will assist users in writing portable code.

Conversion Cost:

Minimal.

Aesthetics:

None.

Discussion: