GIVE-ME-A-BREAK

[Alan Bawden <ALAN at MIT-MC>]

    Date: 1 February 1981 09:47-EST
    From: Robert W. Kerns <RWK at MIT-MC>

    Your complaint is silly.  If you are going to write code which is
    textually compatible with a system with a package system, where
    ":" marks the keyword packge, you have to write the colon.  Or are
    you going to suggest that any symbols that you can be compatible
    for have to be in the GLOBAL package, or you always have to write
    #+MacLisp 'PRINT-SELF #-MacLisp ':PRINT-SELF ??  Have you got any
    better ideas?

    It IS a bug that the others don't even alias the : names to the
    non-: names.

Your answer is silly.  Look, trying to be compatable with people with
package systems is just fine with me.  I have nothing against programs that
do things like: 

	(if (memq subject '(punt-yourself /:punt-yourself))
	    (send-obnoxious-mail)
	    (send-flaming-mail))

just to help out people who want to write code that runs on
LispMachines.  You can even stick pins in me for not having done this
to defstruct yet, and I will just wince and take it.  But this is not
the same kind of situation here.  You are not ALLOWING me to use
colons if I like, you are FORCING me to use colons even if I DON'T like.

A USRHUNK handler is hardly a piece of code that I am likely to try to
bring up on the LispMachine!

Since I have no idea what kind of amazing hair you people have to use
the USRHUNK feature, I have no idea why you think you have to spell
the message with a colon.  But couldn't you just supply a handler that
accepted the messages both with and without colon?  then the MacLisp
system could continue to send uncolonified messages, and you could
send colonified messages and everything would win!  You could even
have an "any other" handler that RE-SENT messages spelt with a colon
without the colon!

But, OK, OK, end of flame, you can spell the message names any way you
like (even inconsistently!) and I can still win, so who cares.