Re: adding namespaces to emacs-lisp (better elisp?)

[Stefan Monnier]

> * `import': Importing a symbol into a package.  Importing makes the
> symbol *present*, not just *accessible* in the importing package.
> If a different symbol with the same name is already accessible in the
> importing package then a user-correctable error is raised: `import'
> avoids letting one symbol shadow another.

Sounds like CL's approach requires symbols to be present in several
packages, which might require more changes than I'd like in the way
obarrays and symbols work.

AFAIK in Mathematica, the list of obarrays to search is just part of the
current reader state, not a property of obarrays, whereas it seems that
in CL the list of obarrays to search is stored in obarrays as a list of
"parent" obarrays (so the list of obarrays to search is changed when we
change the current obarray, whereas in Mathematica the two are unrelated).

I get the impression that Mathematica's design might be fairly easy to
reproduce with the current Emacs code, whereas CL's design would
probably require more changes.


        Stefan