Re: Guile Impressions

[thi]

   From: John Fitzgerald <address@hidden>
   Date: Tue, 8 May 2001 10:13:54 +1200

   [snip]

the above points are not less important than the following, but i don't
have (personal) bandwidth to give a proper response (insert canonical
lame excuse here).  hopefully others will fill in the gaps.

   [...] but it feeds into the bigger picture of modules.  I keep seeing
   disclaimers about the module system being revamped and that we
   shouldn't rely on the current mechanism remaining.  The provision of
   modules is fairly core, I would have thought, to the entire structure
   of Guile applications.  I feel that a robust, stable and well
   documented module system needs to be put in place ahead of the
   facilities and features that could benefit from it.  I know the "new
   module mechanism" continues to be discussed, but it seems to me to be
   being discussed somewhat half-heartedly and not actually moving
   forward.

your impressions are most likely affected by what mailing lists you
monitor.  on the guile-devel mailing list some of us are actively
hammering out specification on the last of the current module system
deficiencies (as i see it), namely "selective import" and "binding
renaming", to be included in the next guile release (which is definitely
on the horizon).  with these features you will have complete control of
a module's bindings w/o messy kludges.

as for the New module system, my advice would be don't wait for it.
next guile release will document the current module system and it's
highly possible (if i have anything to do w/ it) that any future module
system will maintain this interface, so it makes sense to use what you
have now.

people interested in previewing documentation before the release should
check out http://www.glug.org/docbits/ -- and by all means, feel free to
send bug reports and suggestions to address@hidden

   Coming as I do from a procedural language background, I need to
   translate the Scheme terminology to those I already know.  Sometimes
   I do find this difficult.  [...] let's open it up for discussion.

is anyone on this list willing (and able) to start an "unofficial
guile-user wiki" (using guile, of course)?  it's just a SMOP away...

thi