Re: Trouble understanding define (!)

[Mikael Djurfeldt <mdj at mdj dot nada dot kth dot se>]

Mikael Djurfeldt <mdj@mdj.nada.kth.se> writes:

> I really want to use simple (descriptive!) name such as `size' and
> `length'.  But the accessors create a lot of name collisions.  If we
> can find a solution to this problem, I will stop to complain!  :)

Let's take the case of the number of entries in an <adress-book> and a
<phone-list>.

In one of my modules, I'm using both, so if I use the natural accessor
name `n-entries', I get a collision.  (The two container objects may
of course share a common base class, in which case the problem is
solved.)

Now you may suggest that the way to avoid name collision is to use
more "descriptive" names address-book:n-entries and
phone-list:n-entries.

The problem I have with this is that I have probably already chosen
the name of the variable representing the <address-book> to indicate
its contents, e.g., `address-book'.  So, the expression

  (address-book:n-entries address-book)

will be redundant: both the first and the second element says that
we're dealing with an address-book.

I want to write

  (n-entries address-book)

and

  (n-entries phone-list)