Re: adding namespaces to emacs-lisp (better elisp?)

[Nic Ferrier]

Stefan Monnier <address@hidden> writes:

>>>> If a namespace package calls intern the symbol is interned in the
>>>> private obarray.
>>> I'm not sure how you could do that and neither am I sure that would
>>> preserve backward compatibility.  So without more details of how that
>>> would work, it sounds like wishful thinking to me.
>> This is the core of my proposal.
>> The guts of intern need to be altered to be aware of when it is being
>> called in a packaged context. I am currently expecting to be able to do
>> this with a file local variable.
>
> That's easy when the reader calls `intern', but I'm talking about when
> the Elisp code itself makes calls to `intern'.

I don't understand what would be different for my implementation
strategy. When intern is called directly as a function the evaluator
still knows about file local variables and so can detect whether it is
in a package or not.

What am I missing?

This is the crucial part really. It's why I thought it would be
achievable, because a package could just be a special file local
variable (that *is* similar to CL's system).


Nic