Re: My Guile Wishlist

[Neil Jerram]

>>>>> "Evan" == Evan Prodromou <address@hidden> writes:

    Evan> 1. I wish there weren't so much detritus in the Scheme interface that
    Evan>    Guile provides.

    Evan> 2. I wish that there was One Good Way To Do It, and that other ways
    Evan>    were optionally loadable with a module for compatibility.

Further thought on these two, as I realized how central this is both
to many of the changes between 1.4 and 1.6, and to the lessons we're
learning in trying to get 1.6 out.

Take, for example, the module system, obarrays and so on (vcells,
variables, builtin bindings ...).

On the one hand, these related areas have been dramatically simplified
since 1.4, in pursuit of the goal that there should be one simple,
easy to understand way of doing things.

On the other hand, this has left us with a problem as regards
documenting what's changed clearly enough for people using the old C
interface.

In other words, we have to start from where we are, and the biggest
brake on us trying to reach One Good Way To Do Things is the need to
provide backwards compatibility and to explain changes, and the
limitations of the tools we have available to help us do that.

        Neil