Re: r6rs libraries

[Julian Graham <joolean@gmail.com>]

Hi Ludovic,

> But dot files are traditionally "hidden" on Unices.  Why not go with
> `foo/bar/6/baz.scm'?

Because my initial plan was to make it possible to have R6RS libraries
coexist with Guile modules, using the same directory layout and load
system -- and, as per our earlier discussion, numbers can't be part of
module names.

> The `r6rs-libraries' part of the module name is just a matter of load
> path.  The important thing here is that both `import' and `use-modules'
> do the right thing.  Then I would not force R6RS module writers to store
> them under `ice-9/r6rs-libraries' as this is inconvenient and doesn't
> provide any advantage (AFAICS).

Well, it depends on what we plan to support.  Here's what I've got
implemented so far:

`import' (and the `import' specification in the header of a library
expression) can locate Guile modules by delegating to Guile's module
system.  If this fails, the system will attempt to fulfill the import
requirement by loading library expressions from disk as per the
directory layout I described earlier.

What's not clear to me is:

* Should `use-modules' be able to locate and load (and evaluate) R6RS
library expressions?  If so, where should these modules be stores and
how should they be named -- specifically with regard to version
specifiers?

* If both `use-modules' and `import' can load the same R6RS library,
the one of them will need to be extended to understand the syntax of
the other -- i.e., `use-modules' would need to be able to understand
the `library' form or `import' would need to be able to strip off any
"module wrapper" we'd add to a library to make it loadable via
`use-modules'.


Regards,
Julian