GNU Extension Language Plans

[Masayuki Ida <ida@csrl.aoyama.ac.jp>]

We (I and takumi@prod) seemed to have finished a quick 
translation into Japanese and have several questions. 
I like to post the original version and Japanese version 
as well to several news groups in Japan.
Let me have better understanding with your answer to the following questions.

Here is my questions:

 >>			GNU Extension Language Plans
 >>			   Richard Stallman, GNU Project
 >>
 >>			[Please redistribute widely]
 >>
 >>  ...
 >>Sometimes developers choose a language because they like it.  But not
 >>always.  Sun recently announced a campaign to "make Tcl the universal
 >>scripting language."  

Let me know how and when Sun announced.
Or, give me a pointer for it.

 >>                       This is a campaign to convince all the
 >>developers who *don't* prefer Tcl that they really have no choice.
 >>The idea is that each one of us will believe that Sun will inevitably
 >>convince everyone else to use Tcl, and each of us will feel compelled
 >>to follow where we believe the rest are going.
 >>
 >>That campaign is what led me to decide that I needed to speak to the
 >>community about the issue.  By announcing on the net that GNU software
 >>packages won't use Tcl, I hope to show programmers that not everyone
 >>is going to jump on the Tcl bandwagon--so they don't have to feel
 >>compelled to do so.  If developers choose to support Tcl, it should be
 >>because they want to, not because Sun convinces them they have no
 >>choice.

(Applaud!)

 >>			 The GNU extension language plan
 >>
 >>Here is the plan for achieving the design goals stated above.
 >>
 >>* Step 1. The base language should be modified Scheme, with these features:
 >>
 >>** Case-sensitive symbol names.
 >>** No distinction between #f and (), for the sake of supporting Lisp
 >>   as well as Scheme.
 >>** Convenient fast exception handling, and catch and throw.
 >>** Extra slots in a symbol, to better support
 >>   translating other Lisp dialects into Scheme.

thinking of Lisp2 ?

 >>** An optional reader feature to convert nil to #f and t to #t,
 >>   for the sake of supporting Lisp as well as Scheme.

Lisp in general ? 
In what sense you are discriminating Scheme from Lisp ?

 >>** An interface to the library version of expect.

What is 'expect' ?

 >>** Python appears suitable for such an implementation, as far as I can
 >>tell from a quick look.  By "suitable" I mean that mostly the same
 >>language could be implemented--minor changes in semantics would be ok.
 >>(It would be useful for someone to check this carefully.)

What is 'Python' ?
Is it something from Python compiler of CMU guys ?

 >>We will permit use of the modified Scheme interpreter in proprietary
 >>programs, so as to compete effectively with alternative extensibility
 >>packages.

Do you give the name for "the modified Scheme interpreter" ?



Masayuki Ida