Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!spt!gz
From: gz@spt.entity.com (Gail Zacharias)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Subject: Re: Common Lisp lacks portability
Message-ID: <233@spt.entity.com>
Date: 9 Dec 87 20:56:52 GMT
References: <1421@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU>
Lines: 15
Keywords: Common Lisp

Common Lisp does provide a number of ways to portably request type checking
at run time, such as CHECK-TYPE and ASSERT, etc.  But it doesn't specify the
behavior of incorrect programs (such as programs in which declarations are
false).  Basically, the debugging environment is up to the implementation.  I
don't think that's a major shortcoming of the Common Lisp standard.  The
important thing is that once your program is debugged, it should run in any
Common Lisp implementation.

(Btw, if by Allegro Common Lisp you meant the Macintosh one, i.e. Coral
Common Lisp, then here's a hint: turn off *compile-definitions*!  The CCL
evaluator does indeed signal an error on incorrect THE forms.  The reason you
didn't get an error in your example is that TST was running compiled.)

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