readtables & packages

[David.Dill@A.CS.CMU.EDU (C410DD60)]

As far as I'm concerned, associating readtables with packages is a bad
heuristic for always having the right readtable in effect.  Also, 
in my experience, the problem for which this solution is proposed does
not arise very often, nor is it particularly troublesome.  The package
system was designed for structuring large systems -- the fact that it
is handy for embedding other dialects of lisp or entirely different
programming languages is gravy.  People who take it upon themselves
to have a variety of readtables in simultaneous use can also make the
extra effort to add facilities for switching between them conveniently.

Are you folks even talking about the common lisp package system?  All this
discussion about hierarchies makes it sound more like the lisp machine
package system.