How to decide what to kill / packages



>>>>> "Martin" == Martin RUBEY <rubey@labri.fr> writes:

    Martin> I would like to underline the last sentence. Additionally, I think that
    Martin> your contribution might also help with changing the way case sensitivity
    Martin> works. Finally, wouldn't it be simple to extend this patch to a
    Martin> user-package sysyem? It seems to me that we would only need a way to know
    Martin> in which package we are, call it *current_package*, and change

This is already done by Lisp.  It's called *package*.

    Martin> (defun implode1 (lis upcase &aux (ar *string-for-implode*) (leng 0))
    Martin> ...
    Martin>   (intern ar :maxima-user))

    Martin> to

    Martin> (defun implode1 (lis upcase &aux (ar *string-for-implode*) (leng 0))
    Martin> ...
    Martin>   (intern ar *current-package*))

Other than interning ar in a possibly different package, what are we
trying to do here?  Do you want the user to be able to put things in
his own package?  I think we need some careful design before this
happens. 

    Martin> Well, somebody please explain Lisp packages to me...

Very roughly and briefly, a Lisp package is a way separating names
(symbols).  Every symbol lives in some package.  That's about all it
does.

Ray