[gambit-list] AWS, Termite, and Snow

James Long longster at gmail.com
Sat Feb 2 12:38:32 EST 2008


This may not be my place, but just a thought on module systems since
we're discussing the future of them.

Am I the only one that would like to see Scheme48's module system
become the de-facto standard?  I know that's a pipe dream, but after
fiddling around with it, it's the only one that really makes sense
(there are many I haven't used, but that's also what I hear from a few
others).  I'm not even sure what Scheme48's take on conforming to
either R6RS or ERR5RS is, because it definitely wouldn't forego its
module system.  I suppose it could build a compatibility layer of some
sort.

I know hygienic macros are hard - but from what I know Snow doesn't
even attempt to fix the problem of cross-module macros (I think it
only fixes loading macros from compiled modules).  I like how Snow
handles versioning though, but I'd like to see some of the deeper
problems addressed in a module system (hygienic macros, reflective
tower, etc.).

On Feb 1, 2008 6:13 AM, Adrien Pierard <pierarda at iro.umontreal.ca> wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 29, 2008 at 11:29:19PM -0500, Joe Hosteny wrote :
> >       Also, does anyone have a feel for what is going on with Snow? It
> > seems like the traffic on the mailing list is a bit slow, and the
> > number of packages is still relatively few. Don't get me wrong - my
>
> Since R6RS and ERR5RS both provide modules/libraries/else, shouldn't we focus on the
> latter, and use the implementors lobby to insert some cond-expand in the
> library and therefore, define the new de-facto standard for portable
> code?
>
> (library (foo)
>  (export x)
>  (import (err5rs))
>  (define (my-fun x)
>   (cond-expand
>    (gambit
>     (if (version< (current-version) "4.1.2")
>      (error "Need at least gambit 4.1.2")
>      (+ x 1)))
>    (else
>      (error "Sorry, this code currently runs on Gambit only")))))
>
> This raises the issue of the fork of Scheme (ERR5RS), whereas Snow is intended to
> be Scheme compatible (R4RS), but could be a solution.
>
> This could somehow enforce a common framework for portable code
> for the next release of Scheme that is supported by at least 60% of
> *implementors*, wouldn't it?
> We could then use Snow as the global repository for all this code, and
> require SRFIs implementors upload their reference implementation on this
> new Snow...
>
> Adrien
>
> --
> "I am not a Church numeral; I am a free variable!"
> (The Scheme Underground)
> For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
>
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>



-- 
James Long



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