What is that -*- line for, anyway?

[Daniel L. Weinreb <DLW@SCRC-QUABBIN.ARPA>]

    Date: Tue,  4 Mar 86 23:18:16 EST
    From: "George J. Carrette" <GJC@MC.LCS.MIT.EDU>

    Q: Who invented the file mode line in EMACS? 

I'm not sure whether it was Moon, Steele, or Stallman.

    Q: Who decided to extend this to the file attribute line syntax on the Lispm?

I did.

However, speaking as the definer of the file attribute line, I do not
think that we should make any attempt to standardize on it.  It's part
of the programming environment, not the language, and it would be a big
mistake to start slipping into the programming environment business.
Yes, one does need some kind of facility to solve the problems that the
file attribute line solves.  But this should not be part of the CL
standard.

For one thing, as Miller points out, when you have make-system, you now
have an alternative method of saying things about packages of files.
The CL spec should not forbid this or interfere with it.

For another, in our next generation of software development environment
tools, the way to solve the problem will not be with a file attribute
line at all.  I don't want to be stuck with the file attribute line as
part of a standard when I can already see a near future in which it is
obsolete.