[r6rs-discuss] Binary compatibility?

[William D Clinger]

Pascal Costanza wrote:
> a) Which definition of 'draw will 'main refer to at runtime, if any.

Although separate compilation was a goal for the R6RS,
the actual semantics of separate compilation is not
described by the current draft.

> b) Will this be determined at link time, load time or runtime? Is an
> attempt to use the not recompiled 'main an error?

My personal opinion is that it should cause an error
at link or load time, and that is what I intend to
implement.  Since the current draft doesn't specify,
however, the behavior you observe will depend upon
your implementation.

> d) In other words, should R6RS say something about binary
> compatibility (similar to what the Java Language Specification
> specifies), or is this outside of the scope of the specification?

I brought this up some time ago.  IIRC, the editors
felt that binary compatibility was outside the scope
of the specification.

Will