Standardization

[Guy Steele <gls@THINK-AQUINAS.ARPA>]

    Date: Thu, 20 Mar 86 17:02 EST
    From: David.Dill@A.CS.CMU.EDU (C410DD60)

    To what extent can Common Lisp be changed in the process of becoming a 
    standard?

To what extent CAN it be changed?  Arbitrarily (unfortunately), but if
you change it too much then everyone will abandon it.  Fortunately there
are balancing pressures.  To what extent SHOULD it be changed?  My
opinion is that what is there is mostly sound (I happen to be proud of
what the committee produced in the initial design), but that ambiguities
must be clarified, which will inevitably require some changes in some
implementations, and certain extensions are needed (such as error
handling).