Re: [Gcl-devel] *features*

[Michael Koehne]

Moin Paul F. Dietz,

  It was trivial to patch gcl/h/*-linux.h to show LINUX I386 instead
  of MC68020 BSD386.

> From the CLHS, '*FEATURES*' page:
> 
>   "Symbols in the features list may be in any package, but in practice
>    they are generally in the KEYWORD package. This is because KEYWORD
>    is the package used by default when reading feature expressions
>    in the #+ and #- reader macros. Code that needs to name a feature
>    in a package P (other than KEYWORD) can do so by making explicit use
>    of a package prefix for P, but note that such code must also assure
>    that the package P exists in order for the feature expression to be
>    read---even in cases where the feature expression is expected to 
>    fail."

  I also found that place - but making all features keywords opened
  a can of worm [1] in pcl and clcs. So I had to agree to my gecko [2]
  that its getting dawn and there are enough bugs [3] to hunt the
  next nights.

  The question here : are those features who are not in the keyword
  package contrary to the ANSI spec's, or just against my feeling
  about the beauty of source ? So are they a must be fixed or something
  that should better not touched ?

: Since features are normally symbols in the KEYWORD package where name
: collisions might easily result, and since no uniquely defined mechanism
: is designated for deciding who has the right to use which symbol for what
: reason, a conservative strategy is to prefer names derived from one's
: own company or product name, since those names are often trademarked and
: are hence less likely to be used unwittingly by another implementation.

  ECL does not claim to be AKCL, even if its from same origin. Instead :
  > *features*
  (:LINUX :IEEE-FLOATING-POINT :UNIX :DLOPEN :CLOS :BOEHM-GC :ECL
        :COMMON :ANSI-CL :COMMON-LISP :I486)
  
  I wonder what happens, if gcl drops claiming to be AKCL and KCL also.
  
Bye Michael

[1] ECL's c/main.c is using make_keywords in the ADD_FEATURE definition,
  while GCL is using make_ordinary. PCL will try to use the AKCL patches,
  and fails the first time when building saved_gcl_pcl. The workaround
  to drop the PCL *feature* in pcl/makefile wont work any longer, as its
  now :PCL. Later saved_clcs_gcl suddenly stopped supporting the -compile
  command line option. Typing (quit) was the only option to leave there.
[2] Hemidactylus turcicus
[3] Acheta domesticus
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