[no subject]

[Kjeld Hvatum <KSH @ MIT-MC>]

Date: 04/03/85
From: Steve Bacher
To: "Scott E. Fahlman" <Fahlman@CMU-CS-C.ARPA>
Subject: INTERN (Gall: Bug Report)
 
(Note: Please forgive absence of square brackets - I'm an IBM user.)
 
  We decided not to allow users to use SETF on Symbol-Package, since there
  seemed to be no good use for this and since by diddling around with this
  you can create some very confusing situations.
 
It seems to me that this might be construed as a violation of the
LISP (hacker?) ethic, which provides the user with the ability to
manipulate his/her environment any which way {s}he wishes.  Not
that CL is required to provide every tool in the book, especially
since it's straightforward enough to do your own DEFSETF for a
(SETF SYMBOL-PACKAGE ...) construct, but the above reasoning
seems a mite feeble, especially considering the degree of bashing
that *is* permitted by CL.
 
You should keep in mind that users have a way of discovering the
most amazing uses for features that originated as afterthoughts
or oversights.  To say that users should be protected from
nonfunctionality and/or self-confusion runs counter to all that
I have been led to believe.