bug#21944: Error on ordering of define-record-type and define-public in a module is unhelpful - possible improvement?

[Andy Wingo <wingo@pobox.com>]

On Mon 27 Jun 2016 18:10, Mark H Weaver <mhw@netris.org> writes:

>>   * if evaluating an expression throws an error, primitive-load doesn't
>>     read the following expressions and so doesn't detect syntax errors;
>>     try a file like this:
>>
>>     (error "what")
>>     )
>>
>>     With the interpreter (primitive-load) you will get the "what" error,
>>     not a syntax error.  (Yes the unclosed paren hurts my eyeballs but I
>>     wanted to demonstrate a syntax error.  Here's a matching paren:
>>     ")".)
>>
>>   * Procedural macros won't be able to use bindings defined previously
>>     in the file unless they are eval-whenned.  Of course this already
>>     breaks in the compiler, but it succeeds in the interpreter.
>
> Another problem is that in several places, we assume that if a top-level
> form calls 'set-current-module', the forms that follow in the file will
> now be expanded within that new module.  This behavior is needed for
> 'define-module' to work properly, and it's also assumed in boot-9.scm,
> psyntax-pp.scm, and maybe some other places.

I think I fixed this in a reasonable way in master; or, reasonable given
the historical mess that this all is anyway :) Your thoughts welcome
here.

If I did manage to fix that, then the remaining problems are the ones
that I mention, plus reader options which I mentioned in another mail.
I think probably reader options are the only significant issue.  WDYT?

Andy