(defmacro foo (&whole w) ...)

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

    I don't buy any argument that says we have to make certain things
    impossible for users to do just because you find it a pain to have to write
    "&REST IGNORE) (DECLARE (IGNORE IGNORE))" twice a year.

What, exactly, would become impossible if we turned off too-many-argument
checking when an &whole is encountered?  Looks to me like Common Lisp
would still be more or less Turing equivalent.  To me, the question is
whether it is more of a pain for me to write "&REST IGNORE) (DECLARE
(IGNORE IGNORE))" twice a year or for you to write

(WHEN (> (LENGTH WHOLE-ARG) 7)
      (ERROR "Too many args to FOO."))

twice a century.  As I said, if I'm off base on the relative frequencies
of these things in other parts of the user community, then the
orthogonal approach might be preferable.  But I don't see any
impossibility in either approach that would force us to choose the less
convenient of the two.

-- Scott