Re: [Chicken-hackers] [PATCH] Another symbol GC sanity check fix [was: Re: [PATCH] Fix record type tags to be nonglobal by module-prefixing them]

[felix . winkelmann]

> Here's another attempt at improving the sanity check, but if this
> keeps cropping up we might as well just get rid of the sanity check.
> On the other hand, it does point out several issues, so maybe it's
> useful after all:
>
> - Any symbol that starts with \x00 is seen as a keyword, which isn't
>    really true (even if unbound or bound to some other value).
>    This also has an impact on how these symbols are written.
> - This means that any symbol that was defined to itself and then
>    got its plist modified and reset would be registered as
>    collectible (because the propset would think it's a keyword)
>    even though it was still bound.
> - In general, we can't really distinguish between keywords and
>    symbols.
>
> The attached patch also tries to make it easier to change how
> keywords are represented.
>
> In short, I expect that now the assertion (also the one not in
> the DEBUGBUILD) will still trigger if you have a symbol that's
> bound to itself, and starts with \x00.  I hope that's an
> acceptably rare situation.

Signed off and pushed.


felix