&WHOLE broken in DEFINE-METHOD-COMBINATION

[Greg]

I get an error whenever I call a function that uses the simple method combination shown here.

CL-USER> (define-method-combination progn-with-whole ()
           ((methods ()))
           (:arguments &whole whole)
           `(progn (format nil "using ~a" ,whole)
                   ,@(mapcar (lambda (method) `(call-method ,method))
                             methods)))
PROGN-WITH-WHOLE
CL-USER> (defgeneric test-&whole (x)
           (:method-combination progn-with-whole)
           (:method (x) x))
#<STANDARD-GENERIC-FUNCTION TEST-&WHOLE {34315D04}>
CL-USER> (test-&whole 4)

Here is the error:

The value 4 is not of type LIST.
   [Condition of type TYPE-ERROR]

Restarts:
 0: [RETRY] Retry SLIME REPL evaluation request.
 1: [*ABORT] Return to SLIME's top level.
 2: [ABORT] Abort thread.

Backtrace:
  0: (#<FUNCTION {C69203}> #<TYPE-ERROR {FE85ADF}> #<FUNCTION {C69203}>)
  1: (APPLY #<FUNCTION {C69203}> (#<TYPE-ERROR {FE85ADF}> #<FUNCTION {C69203}>))
  2: (SYSTEM::RUN-HOOK SYSTEM::*INVOKE-DEBUGGER-HOOK* #<TYPE-ERROR {FE85ADF}> #<FUNCTION {C69203}>)
  3: (INVOKE-DEBUGGER #<TYPE-ERROR {FE85ADF}>)
  4: org.armedbear.lisp.Lisp.error(Lisp.java:379)
  5: org.armedbear.lisp.Lisp.type_error(Lisp.java:420)
  6: org.armedbear.lisp.LispObject.car(LispObject.java:156)
  7: org.armedbear.lisp.Lisp.eval(Lisp.java:520)
  8: org.armedbear.lisp.Lisp.evalCall(Lisp.java:559)
  9: org.armedbear.lisp.Lisp.eval(Lisp.java:515)
 10: org.armedbear.lisp.Lisp.progn(Lisp.java:684)
 11: org.armedbear.lisp.SpecialOperators$sf_progn.execute(SpecialOperators.java:275)
 12: org.armedbear.lisp.Lisp.eval(Lisp.java:505)
 13: org.armedbear.lisp.Lisp.progn(Lisp.java:684)
 14: org.armedbear.lisp.Primitives$sf_macrolet.execute(Primitives.java:3641)
 15: ((LAMBDA (#:G13665) (MACROLET (#) (PROGN # #))) (4))
 16: (FUNCALL (LAMBDA (#:G13665) (MACROLET (#) (PROGN # #))) (4))
 17: (#<STANDARD-GENERIC-FUNCTION TEST-&WHOLE {34315D04}> 4)
 18: (APPLY #<STANDARD-GENERIC-FUNCTION TEST-&WHOLE {34315D04}> (4))
 19: (MOP::INITIAL-DISCRIMINATING-FUNCTION #<STANDARD-GENERIC-FUNCTION TEST-&WHOLE {34315D04}> (4))
 20: (#<STANDARD-GENERIC-FUNCTION TEST-&WHOLE {34315D04}> 4)

[ehuelsmann]

Well, of course the error can be improved, but the code provided is in error. The backquote form should have read:

`(progn (format nil "using ~a" ',whole))

Note the quote before the unquote. The difference being that the new code evaluates to

(progn (format nil "using ~a" '(4))

which takes (4) as a constant while the old code does to

(progn (format nil "using ~a" (4))

Which tries to evaluate a function by the name 4.

Resolving as invalid. Although I appreciate the fact that the error could be better, I don't see how at this time. (The problem being that LispObject.car() raises a type error "This is not a LIST", while the outer code knows which error *should* have been generated, but has no way to communicate that to inner code without presumed-large performance impact.

[ehuelsmann]

Reopening. On re-reading, the WHOLE variable should have been bound to a form evaluating to (4), so the ticket is valid and I need to figure out how to do this.

[ehuelsmann]

The commits r14040, r14041, r14043, r14045, r14046, r14052, r14053, , r14054, , r14055, r14058 and r14059 together should fix this problem and several others which existed due to my misunderstanding of the spec.

Closing this issue as fixed now. Please test the implementation thoroughly.