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Re: "environment" unsuitable name for top-level environment


Keith Wright <kwright@tiac.net> writes:

> Maybe I don't really understand the objection here; it seems like
> saying we can't call reals 'numbers' because the term is already
> used for integers.

Just to be sure of the analogy here: top-level environments can be
regarded a special case of a lexical environment, so top-level
environments are integers and lexical environments reals, right?

(At least this is the case in most implementations.  The top-level
 environment is the environment inside a module but outside all
 regions contained in the module.)

Since there's no use in having a three-level hierarchy
(integer-real-number) the name 'environment' corresponds to 'real'.

Now, the problem is that we can't call what *really* is a real 'real'
because the integers are called 'real's *instead of* 'integer's
(or: we can't call [lexical] environments 'environments' since the
top-level environments are called 'environments' instead of 'top-level
environments').

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