compiler errors (was Re: issue DEFINING-MACROS-NON-TOP-LEVEL)

[sandra%defun@cs.utah.edu (Sandra J Loosemore)]

The status of compiler diagnostics is, in fact, right near the top of
our list of outstanding issues, and something I've been planning to
bring up at our next subcommittee meeting.

The approach I've been thinking of is to define a condition distinct
 from warning to be used for compiler diagnostics, now that we have a
condition handling spec.  We also need to consider whether things like
syntax errors, which already have conditions defined that are real
errors and not harmless diagnostics, are still real errors when
they're detected by the compiler and not the interpreter.  I think we
at least need to distinguish between cases where the compiler wasn't
able to compile the function or file, and cases where the compiler is
just complaining about your programming style.

-Sandra
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