[Bese-devel] darcs patch: Add :fiveam to *features*

[Marco Baringer]

Alan Shields <Alan-Shields at omrf.ouhsc.edu> writes:

> Several packages modify *features* (such as CL-PPCRE, and
> SPLIT-SEQUENCE) to include their package name. ASDF as well.

well, if split-sequence does it than why can't i? :)

> While CLTL specifies that *features* contains tokens "provided by the
> implementation", CLHS specifies that the tokens "correspond to some
> aspect of the implementation or environment." This difference would seem
> to be deliberate.
>
> I am no common lisp expert, but it would seem to me that *features*
> exists to solve exactly the problem that we're facing here: conditional
> inclusion of code based on the environment in which the code is loaded.

the issue with using *features* is mainly one of compatability. people
have often used on feature (like #+sbcl) to actually imply something
else (for example
#+sbcl-has-a-weird-internal-function-named-foo). this has lead to a
push away from the use of *features*.

> As you say yourself further in the thread: the #. solution leads to
> uglyness.

consider me convinced. i'm going to do this, but i'm going to put
:5am, not :fiveam (that logic being that i've already used up that
name for the package so no harm can come from using it for *features*
as well).

-- 
-Marco
Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget the perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in.
	-Leonard Cohen