consistency

[Dir LCSR Comp Facility <HEDRICK@RUTGERS.ARPA>]

This is a general comment, not aimed at any specific message, but at
a number that I have seen.  If we try to make all of Common Lisp
consistent in argument order and everything else, we are going to
be here for years.  In my opinion it is more important to keep it
consistent with other dialects of Lisp.  This is not supposed to
be a new language.  It originally started out to be a common subset
of the various Maclisp dialects.  Personally I wish it had stayed
as that, but that is obviously impossible.  However I would at least
like it to continue to be a dialect of Lisp.  This means that people
who have studied a standard textbook in Lisp should be able to use it
without finding that all of the functions have been renamed for
"consistency", argument orders have been changed, etc.  Of course
we can always put back traditional functions that you have left out,
but it is much harder for us to change back to traditional argument
orders.
-------