Re: namespaces, goops, etc.

[Michael Livshin]

[ moved to guile-devel, I hope it's appropriate ]

Mikael Djurfeldt <address@hidden> writes:

> These guys are all special.
> 
> 1. define-class - class redefinition protocol

so you give up consistency for magic that you don't even need, really.

let's see when the class redefinition protocol is used.

* interactively, when you re-load some file/module or redefine a class 
  from the prompt.

  in this case, the development environment should have enough
  information to notice that a *re*-definition is taking place, and it
  may even warn you about it or ask for confirmation.

* non-interactively, in a running program.

  if this were up to me, I would _not_ invoke the class redefinition
  protocol magically in this case.  class redefinition is a very
  side-effecting operation.  if you want to do it programmatically,
  there should be a different syntax for it, which should scream "look
  at me, I'm attempting open-heart surgery on a running program!".
  not `define-class', for sure.

just IMHO, I imagine you may have additional reasons to prefer the
magic behaviour?

> 2. define-method - may need to define the GF

so it can define it in the same local scope.  I don't see any problem
here.

-- 
You know better than to trust a strange computer.