Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!agate!ucbvax!BBN.COM!cerys
From: cerys@BBN.COM (Dan Cerys)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ti.explorer
Subject: CL compatibility.
Message-ID: <8909112008.AA10378@sumex-aim.stanford.edu>
Date: 11 Sep 89 20:00:45 GMT
References: <2830099553-4135511@KSL-EXP-6>
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   b) I have noticed on a number of CL implementations
   that they are strict with respect to the number of
   colons you use for symbols.  Only yesterday did I
   discover the existence of
   sys:*restrict-internal-symbols*, which has a default
   value of Nil, even though CL would make you think that
   it should be T.

   I think that not having the default system behaviour
   being strict CL is a major bug.  Does anyone else have
   any opinion on this one?

I'll also agree with Rice on this.  CLtL sez that the reader should signal
a correctable error when foo:bar (where BAR in an internal symbol of FOO)
is read.  It shouldn't be necessary to set some obscure variable (is it
even documented?) to get this standard CL behavior.  The current Explorer
behavior was handy for conversion of Zetalisp programs, but I think we've
gone beyond that.  Change the default value to support Common Lisp
properly. 

If Zetalisp is still important to some users (I would expect there are
some), you may want to be ambitious and provide the external-symbol check
on a per-package basis, as an attribute of the package.  I believe another
Lisp vendor does something like this.  Of course, if you do this, make the
default to be to enforce what CL specifies.

Dan