[R6RS] my notes on today's conference call (20 June 2006)

[William D Clinger]

Conference call June 20 2006 12:45pm
All present by about 12:48pm:
Kent, Will, Mike, Anton, Matthew

0. finalize agenda (1 minute)
    Mike mentioned that we approved an incompatible change
        to quasiquote; we should discuss it to make sure
        everyone understands the implications

1. action items from 6/13/2006 (5 minutes)
   - put final touches on status report (Kent)
        done except for updates based on today's conference call
        Anton will suggest wording re libraries
   - update hash-table draft (Anton)
        done; needs review
   - update safe/unsafe mode draft (Will)
        done; needs review
   - comment on environment proposal (All)
        Mike commented this morning
   - comment on byte vector draft (All)
        done; new draft needs review, maybe approval
   - comment on core/library split (All)
        no comments yet
   - unicode reference implementation (Anton...now Will?)
        done except for normalization procedures
        Mike will offer code for the normalization procedures
   - carried over:
     - submit syntax srfi (Kent)
        done; some revisions to be made in response to comments
     - update library srfi (Matthew and Kent)
        awaiting comments, mainly from Matthew
        needs reference implementation, to be merged with syntax
     - update reference implementation for arithmetic SRFI (Will)
        in progress        

2. quick votes---if not quick, we'll put off (10 minutes)
        these issues came up during preparation of status report
   - make string comparisons n-ary?
     [was optional in R5RS; we've already made char comparisons n-ary]
        yes, without objection
   - leave (make-string n) and (make-vector n) content unspecified?
     (make-bytes n) content is unspecified; add (make-bytes n fill)?
     [see https://r6rs.scheming.org/node/251#comment-1374]
        yes, with two abstentions (Matthew, Mike)
        might recommend that initialization be more definite
            in safe mode
   - if the x in (quote x) is not a datum, "returns", "might", "should"
     or "must" raise &syntax condition?
     [see https://r6rs.scheming.org/node/243#comment-1401]
        issue should be broadened to include all expressions
        vote:
            must: Matthew, Mike
            should: Anton, Kent, Will
        might revisit this later, but it's "should" for now
   - should we restrict what write can print for values that
     cannot be produced via the datum syntax?
        Will moved we leave it unspecified what write does;
        Mike seconded; motion passed unanimously

3. hash tables (10 minutes)
   - Anton's update to draft repository draft
        Will moved to table until next week
        Mike suggested we limit ourselves to eq? hash tables
        Pros and cons were discussed

4. enumerations (10 minutes)
   - see draft checked into repository
        tabled; wrong draft may be in repository

5. mutability of pairs (10 minutes)
        Will moved that pairs created during construction
            of a rest argument be immutable; Kent pointed
            out that (lambda x x) would no longer be a
            legitimate implementation of list
        Motion failed for lack of a second
        Mike moved that pairs be immutable; Will seconded
            (this includes leaving set-car! and set-cdr! out
            of any official R5RS compatibility libraries)
        Discussion: maybe we should announce it and see
            what the community says
        Motion withdrawn, with consent of Mike and Will
        Anton moved that the status report say we are
            considering making pairs immutable after all
            and would like community feedback; Mike
            seconded (or maybe the other way around)
        Vote: approved unanimously

Remaining items left to next week

6. equal? generalizations (10 minutes)
   - generalize to one or more arguments
   - add pred-equal? (equalp?)

quasiquote extension

7. adjourned about 1:50pm