CL implementation questions

[Charles Turner]

Hi,

I don't understand how the CL namespace gets setup. I see in
CommonLisp that several Scheme libraries are pulled in
(prim_syntax.scm & friends) as well as a start on CL (PrimOps.scm) but
none of these symbols appear to be available in the global namespace.
For instance, (defun foo (x) (+ x 1)) works fine, but typing "defun"
yields a unbound location error. Why is that?

It's mentioned in PrimOps.scm that it should be written in CL, but for
that's not possible yet due to a lack of CL support. Is the correct
approach to build some primitive transformers for CL (as in
prim_syntax.scm) and then rewrite the stuff in PrimOps.scm with them?
I don't understand why the %define-syntax & define-syntax methods are
required, I assume for bootstrapping purposes, but I've yet to see the
forest for the trees (sadly the Makefiles have failed to evince the
process for me).

I plan on adding a new Kawa type for Java arrays to avoid the
getClass().isArray() dance when implementing sequences. I can't find
the mail, but I remember Jamison talking about this. Once the new type
is added to LangObjType, where in the package hierachy would the
implementation go? gnu.lists?

Thanks for your time,