Subject: Re: CLOSE and OUTPUT-STREAM-P From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net> Date: Tue, 02 Apr 2002 07:15:16 GMT Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Message-ID: <3226720532135609@naggum.net> * Duane Rettig | Right. So given that we seem to agree that there is a chance for | external interference, and disregarding those cases, I suggest that | any state which can be saved (e.g., in a plist slot) before the close | could also be used at reopen time to get back the same connection, | modulo any external changes. This would give the implementation the | leeway to decide what to return, for example, for output-stream-p after | closing, and still meet your requirement for reopenability. Yes. My position is simply that no information should be wantonly destroyed even if it cannot be used to recover completely a previous state. I cherish the ability of Common Lisp streams to know which file they opened. This is mostly useful during error handling, of course, but the kind of reopening I have in mind would be useful if you want to give the user the ability to edit a configuration file (or source code of a program) and restart interpretation/reading/whatever, but could not guarantee that the file you refer to in the open stream would change, but the new version might have exactly the same name and be re-openable where the stream could not be returned to its beginning. /// -- In a fight against something, the fight has value, victory has none. In a fight for something, the fight is a loss, victory merely relief.