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Re: "environment" unsuitable name for top-level environment
- To: Keith Wright <kwright@tiac.net>
- Subject: Re: "environment" unsuitable name for top-level environment
- From: Mikael Djurfeldt <mdj@mdj-pc.nada.kth.se>
- Date: 18 Aug 1999 11:33:24 +0200
- Cc: djurfeldt@nada.kth.se, jimb@red-bean.com, guile@sourceware.cygnus.com
- Cc: djurfeldt@nada.kth.se
- References: <E11GpUj-0007tz-00@mdj-pc.nada.kth.se> <199908180235.WAA00308@kwright.tiac.net>
Keith Wright <kwright@tiac.net> writes:
> Maybe I don't really understand the objection here; it seems like
> saying we can't call reals 'numbers' because the term is already
> used for integers.
Just to be sure of the analogy here: top-level environments can be
regarded a special case of a lexical environment, so top-level
environments are integers and lexical environments reals, right?
(At least this is the case in most implementations. The top-level
environment is the environment inside a module but outside all
regions contained in the module.)
Since there's no use in having a three-level hierarchy
(integer-real-number) the name 'environment' corresponds to 'real'.
Now, the problem is that we can't call what *really* is a real 'real'
because the integers are called 'real's *instead of* 'integer's
(or: we can't call [lexical] environments 'environments' since the
top-level environments are called 'environments' instead of 'top-level
environments').