On Tue, Nov 8, 2022, 06:20 Gerd Möllmann <gerd.moellmann@gmail.com> wrote:

> .
>
> BTW, in light of what I read now on emacs-devel in various threads,
> I take my questions about the design of shorthands and there use instead
> of modules/packages back, because there is no design.
>

I find this characterization a bit unfair. There was and is a design, a
fairly small one and one aimed primarily at solving a particular problem,
which wouldn't be possible with CL packages. You can't introduce CL
packages into an existing library file without significantly changing it
and without breaking compatibility to earlier versions of Emacs.

Nevertheless, shorthands are not a replacement for CL packages, as I've
explained before.  They were meant to plug a specific hole regarding
namespace pollution derived from packages with very short (and commonly
desired) prefixes.  That was the main goal. In the process, shorthands also
offer a fraction of the programming convenience of CL packages. It's a
very, very small fraction, but given that after many years of discussion
there was still nothing in Emacs and now there is something, i count that
as an improvement of infinite%.

>
>