Condition System Rewrite: cell-error

[Richard P. Gabriel <rpg@lucid.com>]

If you write

(labels ((qux (x y z) (atanh ...)))
  (quux 1 2 3))

It isn't clear to me whether you failed to define the global QUUX or
you failed to define the local QUUX. It is a happenstance that the
``search'' for bindings ends up in the symbol. The name ``cell-error''
implies primacy of symbols. The entire search for a function definition
failed, and the error should not refer to the last part of it.

``I am unaware of any Common Lisp language facilities for creating lexically
local unbound variables and/or undefined functions.''

It is called silence.

I too thought ``binding-error'' was a better name, but I've noticed
that in the glossary, tagbody tags can be bound. I think that this use
of ``bind'' is not supported by natural usage. Can someone point to a
naturally occurring document that uses it? (I am working on the
glossary now.) This means that an unseen go tag is a binding-error.
access-error doesn't have this problem.

I hope to make a case later that bind associates a name with an object
and to use different terminology for go tags and the like. If I
succeed, I will go for ``binding-error.''

			-rpg-