7:49:33beachAt some point, I introduced HOST-SYMBOL as a subclass of SYMBOL during bootstrapping. Now I am thinking that was a mistake. Instead, I am thinking I should work harder to pretend that host symbols are also SICL symbols.
7:50:42beachSuch work would involve programming the HIR evaluator and the AST evaluator to get the right class when CLASS-OF is asked for, to get the unique number of the class when the STAMP is asked for, and to handle SYMBOL-NAME and SYMBOL-PACKAGE differently.
7:51:13beachFor SYMBOL-NAME I am thinking of lazily generate SICL strings in a hash table mapping symbols to such strings.
7:52:24beachFor packages, I am thinking I should integrate packages much earlier in the bootstrapping process, and change the way DEFPACKAGE is handled so that it also creates a SICL package.
7:53:25beachSo when SYMBOL-PACKAGE is asked for, a SICL package would then be returned.
7:54:01splittistMoving 'sophisticated' things like packages closer to the beginning of the bootstrap process seems consistent with the Tao of SICL.
7:54:09beachOh and the hash table for symbol names could be created lazily, because I think SYMBOL-NAME is only asked for during printing.
7:54:30beachSure, but it is also for practical purposes.