Peder O. Klingenberg <peder@news.klingenberg.no> wrote:
+---------------
| "Leslie P. Polzer" <leslie.polzer@gmx.net> writes:
| > When a snippet of code depends on a package (optionally)
| > loaded at runtime, how can I cope with it?
| 
| Do the interning of your symbol at runtime instead of at read time.
| 
| (defun foo ()
|   (when (find-package :optional)
|      (funcall (intern "BAR" :optional))))
+---------------

Or if you might be using case-sensitive reading [e.g., setting
readtable-case to :INVERT, as some people do to deal with CamelCase],
you could even do this:

    (defun foo ()
      (when (find-package :optional)
	 (funcall (intern (symbol-name :bar) :optional))))

I use a version of this sometimes in my LHP (Lisp-Handled Pages)
web application infrastructure, when the LHP page being loaded
is big enough (or sufficiently in flux during development) to
potentially need an ASDF update each time it's accessed:

    ;;; Boilerplate for using ASDF from LHP page.
    (let ((system :foo-web)
	  (package :org.rpw3.foo)
	  (function :foo-main))
      (flet ((this-page (request)
	       ;; Ensure up-to-date each time
	       (asdf:operate 'asdf:load-op system)
	       ;; Call the request handler
	       (funcall (intern (symbol-name function) package) request)))
	;; LHP pages must set the page-handling function while loading.
	(lhp-set-page-function #'this-page)))

Yes, it's somewhat inefficient, but it's *awfully* convenient
while developing a new web app. Make an edit, hit "Reload" on
the web browser, and all the right things get recompiled/reloaded
and the page is refreshed with the output of the new code.


-Rob

-----
Rob Warnock			<rpw3@rpw3.org>
627 26th Avenue			<URL:http://rpw3.org/>
San Mateo, CA 94403		(650)572-2607