261: Portable SRFI Library Reference261: Portable SRFI Library Referenceby WANG Zheng (ufo5260987423)
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This SRFI proposal addresses systemic compatibility issues exposed by
the library reference format defined in SRFI 97
(srfi :<SRFI number> <identifier> ...) and
advocates for a modernized, portable alternative:
(srfi srfi-<SRFI number> <identifier> ...).
None at present.
SRFI 97 minimized assumptions made about a Scheme system's
conformance so that systems may support SRFI Libraries without needing
to support all of the R6RS and R7RS library
systems. However, its SRFI library reference format
(srfi :<SRFI number> <identifiers> ...)
introduces portability and toolchain challenges due to the colon
: character. This design stems from R6RS's
prohibition against unsigned integers as standalone library name
components (e.g.,
(1 lists) being invalid). This proposal advocates replacing
it with
(srfi srfi-<SRFI number> <identifier>...),
resolving three core issues:
C://). Mapping
(srfi :1) to paths like srfi/:1/ fails on
Windows and requires error-prone workarounds elsewhere. Hyphens
- are universally valid, enabling predictable paths like
srfi/srfi-1/.(srfi 1)), while
implementations like Larceny already phase out colons for newer SRFIs.
The srfi- prefix retains backward compatibility while
harmonizing with R7RS trends.: is a reserved
character in URI syntax (RFC 3986), mandating percent-encoding (e.g.,
srfi%3A1), while the hyphen is an unreserved character that requires
no escaping, ensuring cleaner and more human-readable URIs.A SRFI library reference should have the form
(srfi srfi-<uinteger 10> <identifier> ...),where <identifier> is one of the included SRFI
library names defined below, and <uinteger 10> is a
SRFI number. The non-terminals <uinteger 10> and
<identifier> are defined as given in R6RS Chapter
4, Lexical syntax.
Discussion: The
srfi-prefix is used in order to make the SRFI number component an identifier, as required by R6RS.
A SRFI Library can be referenced by number, as in
(srfi srfi-1), or equivalently using the library's name, as in
(srfi srfi-1 lists). There is no reference implementation as this SRFI only specifies a portable SRFI library reference.
I thank Marc Nieper-Wißkirchen for suggesting that I write this SRFI and providing a fairly complete context. I just wrote down his discussions.
© 2025 WANG Zheng (ufo5260987423).
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