Re: [Maxima-discuss] progress report on lexical symbols stuff

[Michel T. <ta...@lp...>]

Hi, Robert

just one little comment - the Parkinson's bikeshed proverbial stuff -

it seems to me that what you call an extent in which a lexical symbol is 
defined

is what is called scope in lisp's discussions on the same subject. while 
extent refers

to the duration of the corresponding bindings (indefinite for local 
variables when

they occur in closures). Not that the terminology has any importance, 
but in this case

it may lead to some confusion. I have been confused enough recently with 
dynamical

variables ..., i have now understood that while dynamical variables may 
appear in a

lexical context (in some let form) their value is taken from the value 
slot of the symbol,

which is not the case for the genuine local variables whose value is 
taken from the lexical

environment (symbol-value doesn't work on them). For the particular case 
of clisp,

this environment contains a vector of pairs variable name, value, where 
the value is

#<SPECIAL REFERENCE> for special variables, and normal values for the 
other ones.

This is very reminiscent of what you are saying in your implementation.


Le 17/02/2024 à 22:25, Robert Dodier a écrit :
>   Any comments or questions are welcome.

-- 
Michel Talon