Re: Compilation implications

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

> You can make your REMAKE-OBJECT technique do this without modifying the loader
> (you have to put in a special variable that allows you to detect recursive
> calls).

The problem with the approach of reading one form and then evaluating it
is that the slot values have already been read and constructed before
allocating the object they go in.  I suppose it would be possible to add
special handling for recursive references that would maintain a list of
these so that the loader can go back and fill them in later, but the
approach of allocating the object before reading its contents is much
simpler.  That's what we already do for lists and arrays.