[r6rs-discuss] [Formal] Rename on export considered harmful

[John Cowan]

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Submitter: John Cowan
Email address: cowan at ccil.org
Issue type: Defect
Priority: Major
Component: Libraries
Report version: 5.92
Summary:  Renaming identifiers on export should be strongly justified
or abandoned.

Report section 6.1 provides a facility for renaming identifiers on export
from a library, but no explanation is given for it.  The need to rename
identifiers on import is plain, as they may need to change to avoid
conflicts with other imported or local identifiers.  At export time,
however, such conflicts are not known.

Having two different "native" identifiers in a library is overkill.  It is
the very simplest of refactorings to globally change all the instances
of identifiers in a given module, and that ought to be sufficient.
Either remove the facility or give a strong justification for it, please.

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