I should know this... finding INPUT-FILES

[Faré]

1. output-translations is for output-files, not for input-files—except
of course that input-files often will in turn call output-files on a
previous operation that it depends on.

2. as to output-files, it is the outermost method that applies the
output translations—when the second value is NIL; the translations are
assumed to already have been applied or subsumed when the second value
is T.

—♯ƒ • François-René ÐVB Rideau •Reflection&Cybernethics• http://fare.tunes.org
Foolishness is rarely a matter of lack of intelligence or even lack of
information.  — John McCarthy


On Fri, Jan 24, 2020 at 3:56 PM Robert Goldman <rpgoldman at sift.info> wrote:
>
> I'm looking at the documentation for INPUT-FILES and OUTPUT-FILES and I see this:
>
>   (defgeneric output-files (operation component)
>     (:documentation "Methods for this function return two values: a list of output files
> corresponding to this action, and a boolean indicating if they have already been subjected
> to relevant output translations and should not be further translated.
>
> Methods on PERFORM *must* call this function to determine where their outputs are to be located.
> They may rely on the order of the files to discriminate between outputs.
> "))
>   (defgeneric input-files (operation component)
>     (:documentation "A list of input files corresponding to this action.
>
> Methods on PERFORM *must* call this function to determine where their inputs are located.
> They may rely on the order of the files to discriminate between inputs.
> "))
>
> Missing in the above is an explanation of how to tell INPUT-FILES whether to apply output translations or not.
>
> Is this left to the author of the relevant PERFORM method? Or is there something one should do when writing a PERFORM method or an operator definition?