Re: [Slib-discuss] [patch] slib 3b3 breaks in require.scm when guile prefix keywords are used

[Aubrey Jaffer]

 | Date: Tue, 8 May 2012 13:37:05 +0200
 | From: Utz-Uwe Haus <address@hidden>
 | 
 | I have some legacy code written for both guile and CL which uses
 | 
 |         (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
 | 
 | to enable CL-style keyword syntax in the guile reader. Recent SLIB
 | breaks with this setting in require.scm, where
 | 
 |         slib:report-locations
 | 
 | calls (WRITE ':) through the report:print function. This function
 | (looking rather different then) worked fine at least in 2.something
 | SLIB, but now generates a reader error because the COLON symbol is
 | now special to the reader.
 | 
 | To reproduce: start
 |               $ guile
 |               > (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
 |               load  slib:
 |               > (use-modules (ice-9 slib))

  address@hidden:~/slib$ guile
  guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
  (keywords prefix positions)
  guile> (use-modules (ice-9 slib))
  ERROR: In procedure primitive-load-path:
  ERROR: Unable to find file "slib/guile.init" in load path
  ABORT: (misc-error)

Also concerning is that LOAD in guile-1.8.7 is busted with SLIB:

  address@hidden:~/slib$ slib guile
  guile> (require 'new-catalog)
  ERROR: In procedure open-file:
  ERROR: No such file or directory: "/usr/local/lib/slib/mklibcat"
  ABORT: (system-error)

The last SLIB ChangeLog entry for Guile is for Guile-1.9.7.

 | ... reader error in require.scm ...
 | 
 | I know that what I do with guile is a hack, but it would still be
 | nice to have SLIB loadable with this setting.
 | 
 | I would suggest the fix below, using #\: instead of ': to denote
 | the character.

I could do that, but it won't fix the cases in the other files.
While (slib:warn 'foo '#\: 'bad 'karma) in Guile prints:

  ;;; WARNING (foo : bad karma)

Other implementations print:

  ;WARN: foo #\: bad karma

which is confusing.

Isn't it lame that Guile chokes on ': ?  I think it should be
relatively easy to fix Guile's reader to handle ': as a special case
(like '-).

 | This patch is enough for me, but I have not checked whether the use
 | of ': in color.scm error statements might create similar trouble
 | for others.

': occurs in differ.scm, color.scm, xml-parse.scm, srfi.scm,
mwdenote.scm, schmooz.scm, and require.scm, primarily in slib:error
calls.