[Larceny-users] foreign-ctools: Why Doesn't it Delete Temporary Files?

[Will Donnelly]

Many important libraries in Larceny are unusable in R6RS mode because
foreign-ctools doesn't clean up behind itself.  Since it attempts to write
its temp files without checking if they already exist, it ends up causing
errors when other libraries are loaded.  To give a specific example, the
"Standard/unix" library writes this file four times, and "Standard/socket"
overwrites it nine times.

Why exactly is line 351, "(delete-temps)", in "foreign-ctools" commented
out? Looking at the SVN logs, it appears that the command has been commented
out ever since it was added two years ago, and in my (admittedly limited)
testing, I have seen no issues caused by uncommenting it.

Considering the many major libraries that encounter this error, and the
dramatic reduction in functionality available to R6RS programs, this would
seem to be a fairly major bug, and it can be fixed by the removal of a
single character. Also, it is very aesthetically unpleasant to leave behind
three temporary files whenever Larceny is run.

Is there some reason I haven't noticed that this feature is still disabled?
If not, it would be really nice to have R6RS mode work properly "out of the
box" for once.

- Will Donnelly
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