Re: Smart variables, dumb variables

[Neil Jerram]

>>>>> "Marius" == Marius Vollmer <address@hidden> writes:

    Marius> address@hidden writes:
    >> > Should it print #<primitive-generic +> from the start?
    >> 
    >> Since it actually _is_ a generic from the start, yes, i think it should.

    Marius> Ok, agreed.  Objections?

Sounds OK.  Eventually, though, I presume what we _really_ want is for
_all_ Guile procedures to be generic.  Once we achieve this, it will
no longer signify anything to say #<primitive-generic> rather than
#<primitive-procedure>, because there won't be any non-generic
procedures left.

    >> Of course, what i'm really after is a test like 'generic? foo' so that
    >> i can write a macro that does what i think guile should do. Make 'foo'
    >> a generic iff it's not one allready.

    Marius> You can't really do that I think.  You can't change a procedure 
into a
    Marius> generic function.  What you can do is change the value of a variable
    Marius> to point to a new function, which is generic.  But maybe that is 
what
    Marius> you want.

Sure?  I think that subrs at least are made generic by filling in a
preexisting slot in the subr structure; variable binding doesn't need
to change.

        Neil