Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!lll-winken!uunet!munnari.oz.au!goanna!ok From: ok@goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au (Richard A. O'Keefe) Newsgroups: comp.lang.scheme Subject: Re: open-input-file [topics from hell, part 2] Message-ID: <5479@goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au> Date: 1 May 91 05:12:04 GMT References: <5405@goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au> <9104270655.aa29839@mc.lcs.mit.edu> Organization: Comp Sci, RMIT, Melbourne, Australia Lines: 35 In article <9104270655.aa29839@mc.lcs.mit.edu>, cph@altdorf.ai.mit.EDU (Chris Hanson) writes: > Date: 26 Apr 91 05:01:29 GMT > From: "Richard A. O'Keefe" > > But this begins to sound like the Common Lisp condition system. > > I understand that Common Lisp bashing is a popular sport in the Scheme > community, and I often gladly participate in it, but in this case I > think it is misdirected. Once a great deal of CL "style" is stripped > away, the underlying mechanism of the condition system is > exceptionally simple, even elegant, and in my opinion should be > seriously considered as a solution to this problem. I have dealt with this in E-mail, and am diappointed to see it surface in this group. The claim that I was "bashing" Common Lisp is *FALSE* and is a radical misreading both of what I intended and what I in fact wrote. As I put it in E-mail, "the wicked flee when no-one is pursuing them"; to put it more strongly, such an extreme reaction to the mere mention (intended approvingly!) of CL betrays a defensiveness which is not consonant with whole-hearted admiration. I note that Oaklisp (one of the Schemes I use) has a condition system broadly similar to the CL one, and the MIT C Scheme has a condition system broadly similar to the CL one, though I've not had the chance to try it. My point, to belabour the obvious, was that if we _want_ a condition system, it would be a good idea to save ourselves much labour by looking at what has already been done. I went on to consider an approach that can be used in the absence of a condition handling system, because that was the topic of this thread. -- Bad things happen periodically, and they're going to happen to somebody. Why not you? -- John Allen Paulos.