[slime-devel] Re: Intentionally dynamic variables in elisp?

[Peter Seibel]

Luke Gorrie <luke at synap.se> writes:

> Peter Seibel <peter at gigamonkeys.com> writes:
>
>> Since variables in elisp are by default dynamically scoped, is there a
>> coding convention for when you mean to take advantage of a variable
>> being dynamic?
>
> The convention that comes to mind is to only do this with variables
> that have been defvar'd and not just use it as a cheesy way to avoid
> passing parameters to subroutines.

Well, the situation is this: in slime (the function) I have a piece of
information which eventually needs to get hung off the connection
object. I can either add a parameter to a half-dozen functions between
slime and the function that actually gets the connection object or I
can bind a dynamic variable (which I'm happy to defvar). Which do you
prefer?

-Peter

-- 
Peter Seibel                                     peter at gigamonkeys.com

         Lisp is the red pill. -- John Fraser, comp.lang.lisp