Declarations

[Scott E. Fahlman <Fahlman@CMU-CS-C.ARPA>]

Dave,

I like your proposal for special declarations and would gladly have
supported it if you had proposed it last June.  I have never felt too
strongly one way or the other about the effect of SPECIAL declarations
on init forms, and your scheme has the merit of clarity.  However, I
feel that it is much too late now for any changes in the fundamental
binding mechanisms of the language.  Despite some minor inconsistencies
in the manual, it seemed very clear to me from the description in
Excelsior that SPECIAL declarations were supposed to include the init
forms, and that is what we implemented.  The finishing touches are now
being added to our system here and to the version at DEC, and I am
totally unwilling to go back and change the compiler and interpreter in
fundamental ways at this time.  Even a name change at this point would
be a major hassle.

-- Scott