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proposals 5-14
#5: I also think the environment argument should go last, much like other
functions currently do, and both the environment argument and the
doc-allowed-p argument should be optional, defaulting to NIL. Returning
the declarations without DECLARE's in them is a good idea too.
#6: I'd prefer KMP's syntax, because it's compatible and doesn't
look like it's giving a default value to the body.
#9: I assume this really means the same symbol, not the same string as
a name (and certainly not by EQL).
#11: Any reason why we still allow integers? If we want to keep them,
then why not allow characters and other numbers?
#13: The restriction on not modifying code (provided by &REST and &BODY)
sounds reasonable, but what about that given by &WHOLE? This would
seem to follow, yet it would make displacing macros harder to implement.
But I basically disagree with the proposal. &REST should always
cons up a true list which the function can manipulate and return.
CAR and CDR should work on real conses only, not temporary ones too.
If we really want to add a language feature to avoid definite consing,
add another lambda-list keyword and ARG/LISTIFY. Otherwise we should
let clever software and hardware try to avoid unnecessary consing.
---Walter
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