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From: carlton@husc10.harvard.edu (david carlton)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.scheme
Subject: open-{input,output}-file
Message-ID: <CARLTON.91Feb15122708@husc10.harvard.edu>
Date: 15 Feb 91 17:27:08 GMT
Sender: news@husc6.harvard.edu
Distribution: comp
Organization: Citizens for Boysenberry Jam
Lines: 8
Lyric: i'm a zarathustra booster and it's good enough for me

Why does the scheme standard require that open-{input,output}-file
signal an error if the file can't be opened?  As far as i can tell, it
makes it impossible to write (portable) programs which can deal with
the non-existence of files.  wouldn't returning #f, say, make a lot
more sense?

david carlton
carlton@husc9.harvard.edu