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Rules of the Game



I'm glad we are taking time to establish a "policy" about making
changes to CL'84.  Regarding Guy's categories 3 and 4, I think we
should only introduce new features when they are necessary to repair
a (more or less) flawed feature in the language.  For example, 
PARSE-BODY is needed by every correct implementation, so indeed
we might as well specify it.  Incompatible changes should only
be made when absolutely necessary to fix a broken feature.

New features and incompatible changes which do not fall into  the
above category should be left for CL'8n.  As Guy said, we ought to
give everyone a half a chance to finish implementing CL'84 before
we throw a pile of new good stuff at them.  Remember, CLs that are
real products can't be changed continuously, because real products
change in cycles (often as long as a year or two).


- Paul