Custom Query (1030 matches)

The new console window in v1.2 becomes the front window whenever a new message appears. This is annoying, particularly when e.g. exiting a break loop using cmd-. because that causes an exitBreak message to appear (and hence removes focus from the listener).

When a function is advised, it conses a small amount of memory every time it is called. It seems as if ADVISE-GLOBAL-DEF is at fault. It would be better if the encapsulation for the function would not allocate memory, i.e. to reduce overhead when profiling inner loops.

in the working-0711 branch, the compiler traps certain kinds of compile-time PROGRAM-ERRORs (at least), WARNs about them, and produces a function that, when executed, complains about whatever errors were detected at compile-time.

? (defun bogus (x y) (eq x) y) ; misplaced paren
;Compiler warnings :
;   In BOGUS: Required arguments in (EQ X) don't match lambda list (FORM1 FORM2).
BOGUS

Unfortunately, the function that's created in this case takes 0 arguments; unless it's called with 0 arguments, one won't see the compile-time error reported.

When this happens when something is defined interactively, any previous (more) correct version of the function is quietly replaced with the 0-arg error-signaling version. Under the old behavior (where an error was signaled at compile-time), the old (presumably working) definition would have remained in place. With the new behavior, it may be necessary to reload code (if possible) and repeat a number of development steps to get back to the point where one has the opportunity to correct a simple syntax error. (I noticed this while working on the compiler, and find this aspect of the new behavior to be a big impediment to productivity.)

If this happens during COMPILE-FILE, I assume that the same sort of unfortunate side-effects occur (unless one is lucky enough to press ^{C before the binary is loaded.)}

I think that I understand some of the motivations for this change and hope that we can think of ways of satisfying the needs of all concerned parties.