Issue COMPILE-FILE-PATHNAME-ARGUMENTS Writeup

Issue:              COMPILE-FILE-PATHNAME-ARGUMENTS

References:         COMPILE-FILE, COMPILE-FILE-PATHNAME

Related issues:     COMPILER-VERBOSITY

                    PATHNAME-LOGICAL

Category:           CLARIFICATION, CHANGE

Edit history:       v1, 13 Feb 1991, Sandra Loosemore

                    v2, 11 Mar 1991, Sandra Loosemore (suggestion from kmp)


Problem description:


  If an implementation extends COMPILE-FILE to recognize additional

  implementation-specific keyword arguments, COMPILE-FILE-PATHNAME

  must also support those additional arguments.  However, there is a

  discrepancy between the standard keyword arguments accepted by

  the two functions, as they are currently documented.  (COMPILE-FILE

  has been extended to accept :VERBOSE and :PRINT keyword arguments.)


Proposal (COMPILE-FILE-PATHNAME-ARGUMENTS:MAKE-CONSISTENT):


  Change the specification of the arguments to COMPILE-FILE-PATHNAME to


  COMPILE-FILE-PATHNAME pathname &key :output-file &allow-other-keys



Rationale:


  The intent was clearly to enable COMPILE-FILE-PATHNAME to be applied

  to any argument list acceptable to COMPILE-FILE.  Documenting

  COMPILE-FILE-PATHNAME with &ALLOW-OTHER-KEYS fixes the problem without

  worrying about future extensions and changes to COMPILE-FILE getting

  things out of sync again.


Current Practice:


  Few implementations support COMPILE-FILE-PATHNAME or the extensions

  to COMPILE-FILE yet.


Cost to Implementors:


  Trivial.


Cost to Users:


  None.


Cost of non-adoption:


  COMPILE-FILE-PATHNAME can't be used reliably for what it was intended

  to be used for.


Performance impact:


  Minor.


Benefits:


  A pointless inconsistency in the language is removed.


Esthetics:


  Looks OK to me.


Discussion: