Re: X in every language syndrome

On Tue, 9 Jul 2024 02:18:23 -0000 (UTC), Kaz Kylheku
<643-408-1753@kylheku.com> wrote:

On 2024-07-08, George Neuner <gneuner2@comcast.net> wrote:

On Sun, 24 May 2020 00:30:21 -0600, Jeff Barnett <jbb@notatt.com>
wrote:
>

...
  By the way, these "use" directives are about as low
level as you can get. Why doesn't the system load whatever is used? Is
your toy designed for less then megabyte memory machines. [There's two
questions buried in here.]

>
Stupid question: why do you consider Scheme using a library to be more
"low level" than Lisp using a package?
>
Gauche is a bit odd in that it has both "use" and "require", but the
difference is only syntax. Gauche has a culture of distinguishing use
of the built-in extensions ("use") vs other libraries ("require").

>
The built-in stuff should not require any magic incantation to come
online. If such a thing is needed in something calling itself a Lisp
dialect, that's embarrassing.

Clearly Scheme is a Lisp *derivative*, but I think it's debatable
whether Scheme really can be considered a Lisp *dialect*.  Its
semantics are very different and it was as much inspired by Algol as
by Lisp. 

YMMV.


In any case, in that code fragment, the functions provided by
util.match are *not* built-in - they are in an implementation specific
library.

Prior to R6RS (circa 2007), Scheme did not even have syntax for
specifying or using libraries.  Although a number of implementations
did provide them, there was no "standard" way to do it.  Gauche's
"extensions" fall into this category.