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From: molson@apollo.uucp (Margaret Olson)
Newsgroups: net.ai,net.research,net.lang,net.lang.lisp
Subject: Re: String Reduction
Message-ID: <2d735f73.4234@apollo.uucp>
Date: Fri, 2-May-86 10:10:52 EDT
Article-I.D.: apollo.2d735f73.4234
Posted: Fri May  2 10:10:52 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 4-May-86 06:25:50 EDT
Organization: Apollo Computer, Chelmsford, Mass.
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Xref: watmath net.ai:3457 net.research:470 net.lang:2420 net.lang.lisp:821


>requiring as TRAC does that strings be specifically called with
>the "cl" operator.  In other words, you could say *(macro,...) instead
>of #(cl,macro,...).  Wegner leaves it as an exercise to the reader to

In the version of TRAC that I worked with in 1983, you could say
#(macro) and ##(macro).  As I recall, these two cases were treated
exactly like #(cl,macro) and ##(cl,macro).  This version had a considerably
larger set of primitives than those discussed in all the TRAC papers and
documentation that I ever saw.
               
String reduction has been used to solve real problems.  A company called 
Data Concepts used TRAC to write an applications generator.  The applications 
generator was used by insurance raters to write rating systems.  Rating systems 
are hard because insurance rating rules change all the time (like every day as 
far as I could tell).  Anyway, TRAC was used for a real product.  I think that 
Allstate is still using this stuff for some kinds of commercial policies.  

TRAC trivia: It was developed and originally owned by Calvin Mooers, and then
sold to Data Concepts Inc.  Data Concepts has since gone bankrupt, so I beleive 
that TRAC is now owned by some type of bankruptcy court entity.  It is (presumably)
for sale.

Margaret Olson.
molson@apollo