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<p dir="auto">That slot <em>is</em> there, but it is specifically noted as being for ASDF 2 compatibility only, and not to be used. So you are using this at your own risk.</p>
<p dir="auto">Having a <code style="background-color:#F7F7F7; border-radius:3px; margin:0; padding:0 0.4em" bgcolor="#F7F7F7">:plist</code> slot might be a good addition, as well (i.e., both of my 2 proposed solutions) as something lighter weight than my second alternative which is aimed at gracefully being able to extend ASDF's canonical metadata properties.</p>
<p dir="auto">On 29 Apr 2021, at 13:00, Marco Antoniotti wrote:</p>
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<blockquote style="border-left:2px solid #777; color:#777; margin:0 0 5px; padding-left:5px"><div id="AF40AB8E-CC89-4E03-8C9E-D1DA7220A61C"><div dir="ltr"><div>Hi Robert</div><div><br></div><div>Isn't the <span style="font-family:monospace">:properties</span> slot already there? I just used it (a month ago) to add an ASDF DOCUMENT op to HELambdaP. Worked like a charm once I got the hang of it and it seals the general ASDF machinery from random stuff.<br></div><div><br></div><div>Marco</div><div><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Thu, Apr 29, 2021 at 6:13 PM Robert Goldman <<a href="mailto:rpgoldman@sift.info">rpgoldman@sift.info</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><u></u>
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<p dir="auto">ASDF checks to make sure all of the initargs are defined when parsing a <code style="background-color:rgb(247,247,247);border-radius:3px;margin:0px;padding:0px 0.4em" bgcolor="#F7F7F7">defsystem</code>. This is good for catching errors, but is terrible for extensibility. This means that any attempt to add additional metadata will be backwards incompatible.</p>
<p dir="auto">I can think of two ways to fix this:</p>
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<li value="1"><p dir="auto">Add a "garbage can" slot to <code style="background-color:rgb(247,247,247);border-radius:3px;margin:0px;padding:0px 0.4em" bgcolor="#F7F7F7">component</code> that will be filled with a property list, and allow programmers to do whatever they want here. This doesn't seem great to me.</p></li>
<li value="2"><p dir="auto">Add a new <code style="background-color:rgb(247,247,247);border-radius:3px;margin:0px;padding:0px 0.4em" bgcolor="#F7F7F7">defsystem</code> parsing error class that is <code style="background-color:rgb(247,247,247);border-radius:3px;margin:0px;padding:0px 0.4em" bgcolor="#F7F7F7">unknown-component-property</code>, raise it when an unknown property is encountered and allow the user to continue, discarding the initarg and accompanying value.</p></li>
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<p dir="auto">The second alternative is what I favor. It isn't great, because it will only maintain extensibility going forward, but I think it's the best we can do.</p>
<p dir="auto">I suppose that we could also add an initarg to tell ASDF to continue such errors silently. I'd be inclined to suggest that this take an ASDF version expression as value, so that the error is quietly ignored only by ASDF versions below that. This means that the property will start to be checked when it has become authoritative.</p>
<p dir="auto">Note that for one's own <code style="background-color:rgb(247,247,247);border-radius:3px;margin:0px;padding:0px 0.4em" bgcolor="#F7F7F7">system</code> and <code style="background-color:rgb(247,247,247);border-radius:3px;margin:0px;padding:0px 0.4em" bgcolor="#F7F7F7">component</code> subclasses, the set of initargs can be extended without any monkeying around.</p>
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</blockquote></div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;display:inline;float:none">Marco Antoniotti, Associate Professor</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:pre;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none"> </span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:pre;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none"> </span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;display:inline;float:none">tel.</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;display:inline;float:none;white-space:pre"> </span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;display:inline;float:none">+39 - 02 64 48 79 01</span><br style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;display:inline;float:none">DISCo, Università Milano Bicocca U14 2043</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:pre;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none"> </span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:pre;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none"> </span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:pre;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none"></span><a href="http://dcb.disco.unimib.it/" style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px" target="_blank">http://dcb.disco.unimib.it</a><br style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;display:inline;float:none">Viale Sarca 336 <a href="http://cdac2021.lakecomoschool.org" target="_blank">http://cdac2021.lakecomoschool.org</a></span><br style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;display:inline;float:none">I-20126 Milan (MI) ITALY</span></div></div></div></blockquote>
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