Re: SCM_VALIDATE_...

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

Jim Blandy <jimb@savonarola.red-bean.com> writes:

> If I understand you, this makes it difficult to introduce new
> representations which have more expressive power than an existing
> representation.

I'll add a clarification, just to, potentially, speed up the dialogue:

Just to get it right:

We're talking about the problem of how to get real? to work on new
representations, right?

Simple: Since the new representation inherits from <real>, real? will
work, because real? will simply be an efficient check that the class
of te object is a subclass of <real>.

Note that this works even if we choose to allow multiple
representations.

Also note that I didn't say we should freeze te entire hierarchy.  I
*do* think it would be good t freeze <integer>, <fixnum>, and,
<bignum>, though.