Subject: Re: closing files by gc From: Erik Naggum <erik@erik.naggum.no> Date: 09 Jan 2003 10:01:39 +0000 Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Message-ID: <3251095299409304@erik.naggum.no> * Tom Lord | In other words: it isn't just a "safety net" to compensate for | sloppy programming (like `with-foo' implementations that aren't | quite right). In fact, for some algorithms, it's essential. | | All the people advising "Hey, just use `with-foo'" -- well, as a | rule of thumb, that's fine. But as an absolute rule it means "Hey, | there are some algorithms you can't code in lisp" and that's just | icky. | | Geeze, isn't this completely obvious? Y'all are writing satire, | right? What I find rather obvious is that any stream you read from may be closed when you hit end-of-file, regardless of where this happens. Users of a stream can test for open-ness with `open-stream-p´, which is quite remarkably different from testing for end-of-file. -- Erik Naggum, Oslo, Norway Act from reason, and failure makes you rethink and study harder. Act from faith, and failure makes you blame someone and push harder.