[cdr-discuss] Names for the equality generic function

[Christophe Rhodes]

Terje Norderhaug <terje at in-progress.com> writes:

> I have an alternative to coming up with different names for the
> generic equivalent to Common Lisp functions:
>
>    Give the generic functions the same name as the equivalent Common
>    Lisp functions and intern them in a new package that doesn't use
>    the CL package.

Well, here's yet another alternative: trampoline the Common Lisp
functions to generic functions of the same name in a new package that
doesn't use Common Lisp.  (This is what I have done with the sequence
functions, to reasonable success).

Not that I think that a normal generic function for EQUAL/EQUALP (or
whatever you want to call it) is in any way a good idea; it is a perfect
example of a context-sensitive function, and modelling that with
standard generic functions does not automate the inclusion of context.

Christophe