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Re: Update, near finalization

This page is part of the web mail archives of SRFI 63 from before July 7th, 2015. The new archives for SRFI 63 contain all messages, not just those from before July 7th, 2015.



 | Date: Sun, 10 Apr 2005 23:23:05 -0700
 | From: Per Bothner <per@xxxxxxxxxxx>
 | 
 | Aubrey Jaffer wrote:
 | > My focus is to get multidimensional arrays incorporated into R6RS; and
 | > SRFIs are allegedly the way to do that.  R6RS will not incorporate
 | > both SRFI-25 and SRFI-63; so concerns about their interoperations is
 | > at most secondary for a standards track SRFI.
 | 
 | Ok.  But don't expect expect at least my Scheme implementation to
 | put effort into implementing SRFI-63 - at least until we get a
 | preview of R6RS.

Fair enough.

 | (I do find the lack of openness in the R6RS process rather
 | unsuitable, FWIW.)
 | 
 | > ... Yes it was.  It was the SRFI-25 authors who decided to be
 | > incompatible.  See
 | > http://srfi.schemers.org/srfi-25/mail-archive/msg00090.html
 | 
 | Hm.  Ironically, it was I who pointed out the incompatibility.  But
 | nobody who was actually was using Bawden-arrays spoke up, it
 | appears.  And it wasn't just "SRFI-25 authors who decided to be
 | incompatible" - others supported that decision.  I was the only one
 | (? - I haven't check the entire discussion acrhive) to argue for
 | compatibility (as I do again), but using Bawden-arrays myself I
 | could hardly object too strongly.
 | 
 | However, in the current situation I myself have implemented SRFI-25
 | arrays, so I *am* in a position to object.

SRFI-47 (which is upward compatible with SRFI-63) is implemented in
SCM, Guile, and SLIB.  So renamed or not, SRFI-63 would lack
interoperability with at least one existing, finalized SRFI.

 | ... What is the usage *today*?

SCM, Guile, and any Scheme using SLIB have Bawden arrays.  Every
recent Linux distribution includes Guile, so that should count for a
lot.

But this pissing contest should be largely irrelevant to R6RS --
SRFI-63 is more capable (uniform arrays), better integrated with R5RS
(specifying vector, string, and EQUAL? behavior), compatible with
SRFI-58 array syntax, and better designed than SRFI-25.