Object type names

[Masinter at PARC-MAXC]

The Interlisp file package deals with objects via object type names FNS, VARS, MACROS, RECORDS, ... (I think there are about 15 built-in types.)

All of the functions in the file package which deal with object types (e.g.,
GETDEF, COMPAREDEFS, MOVEDEF, EDITDEF, etc.) will coerce non-standard synonyms,
e.g. FUNCTION, FUNCTIONS, VARIABLE, ...

The mechanism for doing the coersion, allowing users to add new synonyms, object
types, etc. is not very complex. 

I think it is much more user sensible to talk about FUNCTIONS than  DEFUN-objects
(or DEFINEQs, for that matter.) It did turn out to be more convenient to have FNS
and VARS rather than FUNCTIONS and VARIABLES, the brevity for common types as
important as the historical reasons.