The suggested patch (clj-1100-reader-literal-periods.patch) will break reading records when *default-data-reader-fn* is set. Try adding a test like this:

(deftest tags-containing-periods-with-default
      ;; we need a predefined record for this test so we (mis)use clojure.reflect.Field for convenience
      (let [v "#clojure.reflect.Field{:name \"fake\" :type :fake :declaring-class \"Fake\" :flags nil}"]
        (binding [*default-data-reader-fn* nil]
          (is (= (read-string v) #clojure.reflect.Field{:name "fake" :type :fake :declaring-class "Fake" :flags nil})))
        (binding [*default-data-reader-fn* (fn [tag val] (assoc val :meaning 42))]
          (is (= (read-string v) #clojure.reflect.Field{:name "fake" :type :fake :declaring-class "Fake" :flags nil})))))

The problem assessment is ok, but the resolution approach may not be. What happens should be based not upon what is in data-readers but whether or not the name names a class.

Is the intent here to allow readers to circumvent records? I'm not in favor of that.

New patch following Rich's comments. The decision to read a record is now based on the symbol containing periods and not having a namespace. Otherwise, it is considered a data reader tag. User
defined tags are required to be qualified but they may now have periods in the name. Tests added to show that
data readers cannot override record classes. Note: Clojure-defined data reader tags may be unqualified, but they should not contain periods in order to avoid confusion with record classes.

I deleted my old patch and some comments referring to it to avoid confusion.

In Clojure 1.5 beta 1, # followed by a qualified symbol with a period in the name is considered a record and causes an exception for the missing record class. With the patch, only non-qualified symbols containing periods are considered records. That allows user-defined qualified symbols with periods in their names to be used as data reader tags.

clj-1100-periods-in-data-reader-tags-patch-v2.txt dated Feb 7 2013 is identical to CLJ-1100-periods-in-data-reader-tags.patch dated Nov 29 2012, except it applies cleanly to latest master. The only change appears to be in some white space in the context lines.

I've removed clj-1100-periods-in-data-reader-tags-patch-v2.txt mentioned in the previous comment, because I learned that CLJ-1100-periods-in-data-reader-tags.patch dated Nov 29 2012 applies cleanly to latest master and passes all tests if you use this command to apply it.

% git am --keep-cr -s --ignore-whitespace < CLJ-1100-periods-in-data-reader-tags.patch

I've already updated the JIRA workflow and screening patches wiki pages to mention this --ignore-whitespace option.

Both of the current patches, CLJ-1100-periods-in-data-reader-tags.patch dated Nov 29 2012, and clj-1100-reader-literal-periods.patch dated Nov 6 2012, fail to apply cleanly to latest master (1.5.0-RC15) as of today, although they did last week. Given all of the changes around read / read-string and edn recently, they should probably be evaluated by their authors to see how they should be updated.

I deleted my patch: CLJ-1100-periods-in-data-reader-tags.patch. clj-1100-reader-literal-periods.patch is clearly wrong, but the original author or an administrator has to delete that.

I cannot figure out how to remove my attachment (clj-1100-reader-literal-periods.patch) in JIRA.

Downarrow (popup) menu to the right of the "Attachments" section. Choose "manager attachments".

Great, thanks Steve. Are you going to take another pass at this issue, or should I give it a go?

Kevin, I'm not planning to work on this right now as 1.5 is pretty much done. It might be worthwhile discussing the issue a bit on the dev mailing list before working on a patch, but that's up to you. I think my approach was correct, although now changes would have to be applied to both LispReader and EdnReader.