[Openmcl-devel] OpenMCL 1.0-rc1

[bryan o'connor]

[replying back to the list]

On Sep 25, 2005, at 11:36 AM, David Tolpin wrote:
> When I updated clocc/port library, I added a lot of that (and mcl  
> (not openmcl)) and thought it was the right thing. It would be easy  
> to change, but would require a lot of effort to change everywhere  
> (in all libraries, that is).

as long as every #+(and mcl (not openmcl)) conditional had a
corresponding #+openmcl, it should continue to work even if
:mcl is removed.

the problem is the places where :mcl conditionalizes code for
both mcl and openmcl.  those would need :openmcl added.

i've seen some code in other projects that use #+mcl for code
that i don't think would even run in MCL.  dumping :mcl (and
changing those occurrences) might end up being beneficial for
MCL users trying to use those packages.  (asdf-install avoids
the problem by using :digitool for MCL specific code.)

> Any chance the feature is removed by default but can be added by a  
> switch as a transition/compatibility option?

that wouldn't be too hard to do.  my worry is that projects
that moved away from (and mcl (not openmcl)) might not be
able to coexist in that same openmcl instance.

aesthetically, i'd like to see :mcl go.  doing it before v1.0
seems like a good idea, but at the same time i'm nervous about
potentially breaking a lot of code.

if we did it now, i'd want to extend the release-candidate
stage and strongly encourage more users to test with it.


     ...bryan