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From: hyatt@fred.flw.att.com (Wayne Hyatt)
Subject: Re: Yes, but how much will it cost?
In-Reply-To: carroll@quadriga.cis.udel.edu's message of 13 Apr 1995 16:33:43 GMT
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Date: Fri, 14 Apr 1995 18:10:28 GMT
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In article <3mjjp7$dui@louie.udel.edu> carroll@quadriga.cis.udel.edu (Mark C. Chu-Carroll) writes:

   You can't get the *name* of a class or a slot, because classes and
   slots don't actually *have* names. That sounds strange, but hold on, and
   I'll try to explain.

   .... 

   Further, you can't even do anything by prepending the module name.
   Module names can be changed by library use clauses. And library names
   can be changed by the development environment!

   You're asking for something that just doesn't make any sense in the
   context of the language. What you want is something which allows you
   to use names defined for things in some sort of global namespace. But
   Dylan doesn't have a global namespace.

Your points are well taken.  I can see that the value of such
flexibility with variable and module names outweighs the value of the
kind of name introspection I was discussing.  Thanks for taking the
time to respond.

Wayne Hyatt
(also a graduate from the University of Delaware)
