Re: CL packages

[Joe Marshall <address@hidden>]

> On Saturday, October 25, 2003, at 12:09 PM, Daniel Weinreb wrote:
>
> Very briefly, the main problem with the Common Lisp package system is
> that it all happens at "read time".

Gary King <gwking@cs.umass.edu> writes:
> To put it differently, how much of CL's package problem is due to
> having a read-time? Are there other interactive languages with better
> solutions?

The package system (formerly known as the `multiple obarray hack') was
originally designed to allow different software systems to peacefully
co-exist by giving each system a separate set of symbols.  It works
pretty well for that purpose, but it is a crude mechanism for
modularization.

I think the MzScheme and the Scheme48 module systems are worth looking
at.