Package extensions usage

[Scott L. Burson]

Package-local nicknames always seem to me like a good idea, and I expect
that if I ever built something really large in CL they would sooner or
later become invaluable, but I have to confess that the number of times I
can recall actually using them is on the order of once or twice.

I don't think I've ever used hierarchical packages, though I used to use
Allegro all the time.  But I have no objection if other people want to use
them (as long as I can define local nicknames for them).

Broadly, I agree that packages can be very large without causing
difficulties, as long as a single organization is in control of the entire
contents.

-- Scott

On Tue, Dec 29, 2015 at 3:52 PM, Alessio Stalla <alessiostalla at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> I'd like to run a little poll among experienced Lisp developers. The topic
> is the usage in the wild of the extensions to the package system provided
> by various implementations. My apologies to people who are subscribed to
> the ABCL mailing list, where some time ago I submitted the same questions
> getting back several insightful answers but no actual data.
>
> So, here is how it is. I'm working on a novel idea (I hope) regarding
> symbols and packages; I won't go into the details now. It suffices to say
> that there is some overlap with features offered by certain Lisp
> implementations, namely:
>
>  * package-local nicknames: the ability to specify, for each package, a
> list of nicknames for other packages which are in effect only in that
> package; available on ABCL and SBCL (
> http://www.sbcl.org/manual/#Package_002dLocal-Nicknames) and possibly
> other implementations I'm not aware of.
>  * "Hierarchical" packages: a naming convention for packages understood by
> the reader and a few support functions, which allow to have concise
> nicknames for a group of closely related packages, such as
> com.foo.mylib.api and com.foo.mylib.implementation. Found natively in
> Allegro CL (
> http://franz.com/support/documentation/current/doc/packages.htm) and in
> an open-source library by P. Bourguignon.
>
> My questions:
> 1) First and foremost, is anybody actually using those features? What are
> you using them for?
> 2) If yes, how useful are they for you? What shortcomings do you find in
> them?
>
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