Re: CC mode loads CL

[Miles Bader]

On Sat, Jan 17, 2004 at 01:17:38PM +0100, Martin Stjernholm wrote:
> > `delete-duplicates' has a typical problem of many cl functions: it uses
> > keyword arguments.  Maybe we could add a simpler version of it to the
> > core which would be `upward compatible' with the cl version (so that cl
> > could redefine it upon being loaded without screwing up `native' users).
> 
> If the problem with keyword arguments is runtime overhead, it ought to
> be possible to make a macro package that translate such keyword
> arguments to position based argument passing at compile time.

Perhaps; I think there are practical impediments to such an approach in
general though (notably it requires the function definition be known when
compiling callers).

However, besides I'd be very reluctant to start using keyword arguments in
the `common lisp manner' simply because it breaks stylistically with elisp.
In elisp keyword arguments are generally used only when they there is a wide
range of possible arguments (like in set-face-attribute), but in common-lisp
they are often used in situations where emacs uses optional arguments.

> I'm sorry, I meant cl-macroexpand-all.

Hmmm, I've got a standalone non-cl version of macroexpand-all that I'd like
to merge at some point anyway... [in my lexical-binding emacs, the compiler
uses macroexpand-all at an early stage instead of macroexpanding each form as
it is compiled.]

-Miles
-- 
.Numeric stability is probably not all that important when you're guessing.