> I would love it if someone were to write a SRFI to define a programmable
> way to control how a Scheme implementation maps library names to
> pathnames.

I've had something in mind for more than a year, but the details are
difficult. It's based on the Smalltalk idea of protocols, as well as
Unix/Plan 9 namespacing.

One thing has become clear to me: it should be a layered approach. A
full-blown rewrite system is too much for the smallest implementations.

I'll write up a detailed proposal when I can find the time.

> MIT Scheme has an undocumented way to do that now that's
> still under experimentation.

Can you link to the source code?

> It would be great, for example, to be able
> to allow any library in the (srfi ...) "namespace" to try all of the
> popular conventions rather than just using the implementation's standard
> convention.

As long as the mechanism is general, not a collection of special cases.