[plt-dev] #lang: the stake in Dracula's heart?

From: Carl Eastlund (cce at ccs.neu.edu)
Date: Mon Feb 1 12:13:40 EST 2010

(Pardon the overly dramatic title, this is probably a far-off concern
right now, but the pun was irresistible.)

I know we are trying to make #lang into our primary "language level"
mechanism; this is a good thing.  My question to the other developers
is: are we trying to make it our only mechanism?  Are there plans to
abandon other methods of language specification?

As the Dracula maintainer, this is crucial to me.  Dracula can only
cooperate with ACL2 if source files are readable by both.  If we go to
#lang-only modules, ACL2 will not be able to read files written in
Dracula, as it does not understand `#lang planet cce/dracula', and
Dracula will not be able to read ACL2's libraries, as `(in-package
"ACL2")' is not a #lang specification.

What are our plans for non-#lang languages and compatibility with
other compilers, in the foreseeable future?

Carl Eastlund


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