Re: clisp - general interest in code cleanup

[Pascal J. B. <pj...@in...>]

Daniel Jour <dan...@gm...> writes:

> The issue is if one does not have the time to start reading from the top,
> but must/want to make a change now. If you jump right into spvw.d and
> start reading code, then there's a lot that you have to look up (and
> eventually "backtrack", if you made a false assumption).
>
> That's why I like "layered" approaches: You put low level code into a
> separate file and create an include file that contains only what you're
> supposed to be using in "higher" layers together with a extensive summary
> of how these functions and structures behave and are to be used.

I would not want to detract you from your clisp maintainance, but for a
later project, we could imagine an emacs mode where each function (or
toplevel form) is presented in its own buffer, with navigation buttons
to the callers and callees and other references to the function.  emacs
would then manage itself the storing of the toplevel forms in one or
more files files, you wouldn't have to care about it.  Something like
the Smalltalk code browser: there's no notion of file then.

> (Though that's not an argument for separate files ... all of this could
> of course live in the same file; I think it's the "summary" that's the
> critical thing which is missing for some parts of the CLISP code)

Don't complain, at least you have the specifications of this program!
:-)


-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__                 http://www.informatimago.com/
“The factory of the future will have only two employees, a man and a
dog. The man will be there to feed the dog. The dog will be there to
keep the man from touching the equipment.” -- Carl Bass CEO Autodesk