EXPORT-IMPORT and the other random commands

[Bob Boyer <CL.BOYER@R20.UTEXAS.EDU>]

I think that the "Put in seven extremely random user
commands" stuff needs to be documented much more rigorously.
I don't think that any collection of cross-references in
CLTL will suffice to make things clear.  I am no authority
on Common Lisp, but I have tried my best to use packages and
modules according to the rules I have read and according to
the implementations of the half dozen Common Lisps I could
get my hands on.  I have failed, badly, and given up on the
PISERUC for the time being, pending clarification and
convergence on implementations.  I stay in package USER and
don't use modules; it's rude, but it seems more portable
than the alternatives.

I think that it would be wonderful to have a test collection
of about a dozen short files that create and use about a
dozen packages, all importing and exporting from one
another, with a half dozen modules, some requiring others,
all of which interacted with compilers and loaders and Lisp
machine editors and ran under the available major Common
Lisp implementations.  I do not currently believe in the
existence of such a collection of files and operations, one
which is consistent with every reasonable reading of the
PISERUC rules.  I believe that someone's implementation will
break under the loading/compiling/using/requiring/editing
sequence no matter how you write such a set of files.
Whoever's implementation breaks will probably have a good
argument justifying their implementation, citing chapter and
verse from CLTL.

If an example collection of files could be agreed upon it
would, of course, still only be a start, and no substitute
for regular documentation, but it might start convergence
between implementations.
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