[Gd-hackers] not happy with the table macro

[Dustin Voss]

No problem. Per discussion on IRC, I'm rolling back the check-in and  
moving it to table-extensions (with possible name change to avoid OD  
conflicts) in a few days.


On 13 Dec 2006, at 2:03 PM, Bruce Hoult wrote:

> I'd like to thank |agent for writing the table() macro:
>
>  http://www.opendylan.org/cvszilla/transaction.cgi?id=11064
>
> It looks quite useful in a lot of code.
>
>
> Unfortunately I see a number of problems with this which together make
> me quite unhappy.
>
> - the checkin comment says it is in common-extensions but it would
> appear to be in common-dylan, based on the number of files checked in
> that say "use common-dylan, exclude: { table };"
>
> - common-dylan should be quite stable, only one step below the DRM
> itself, and modified only on the basis of consensus, after a proposal
> and discussion.
>
> - common-dylan should be the same between GD and OD.  The checkin
> comment admits that this can not be implemented in OD at present.
>
> - the name choosen is highly likely to conflict with existing Dylan
> code, and these days common-dylan is *the* standard import, replacing
> the older "use dylan".
>
>   - That conflict is likely is evidenced by six of the nine files
> touched by the transaction being modified PURELY to resolve name
> conflicts with the new macro, either by renaming existing variables or
> by excluding "table" from the imports.
>   - there is no way to know how much user-written code will conflict.
> My guess is: a lot
>
>
> I would like to see some or all of the following done:
>
> - the macro renamed to something less likely to conflict, such as  
> make-table.
>
> - the macro removed from common-dylan and put into common-extensions,
> or table-extensions, or contributions.
>
> - changes to common-dylan, if they met general approval, should be
> implemented simultaneously in Gwydion 2.4 and 2.5 branches, and in
> OpenDylan.
>
>
> I'm really happy that Agent is working on improving Dylan and I'd like
> to encourage this.  We sorely need many improvements to the compiler,
> libraries and documntation.
>
> I just don't think we should make incompatable changes to the language
> itself quite so casually.
>
> Best regards,
> Bruce
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