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A Proposal for Environments in Scheme



Thank you for your interesting environment proposal.  I am not sure
what I think of it, but I do have one question.

What exactly is an identifier?  Is it a symbol whose print name does
not end or begin with a colon?  If so, the print name determines the
interpretation of an identifier.  This mixes up the concept of how to
print a symbol with the concept of how to use it as an identifier.

Maybe colon is a read time macro, and no symbol is allowed to contain
colon.  

[1] a:b		==>  (eval (ENVIRONMENT-REF B (QUOTE A)))

[2] 'a:b	==>  (ENVIRONMENT-REF B (QUOTE A))

[3] (string->symbol "A:B")	==>	?

By your description [1] is true, what about [2]?  What is [3]?
John