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[Kent M. Pitman <KMP at MIT-MC>]

From: Date:
Date: Thu, 11 Jan 80 16:15:22 GMT
Original-Date: 11/01/80 12:15:22 EDT
Subject:
From: MILLER at MIT-AI
To:   KMP
Re:   Query for Lisp users

My own opinion falls somewhere between that if Pete Solovitz' (gather all such
cleanups together, do them all at once, and publish a definitive 1980 manual,
or else don't do it at all -- and to his list I'd add flushing old-style DO)
and that of BEE (go for it).  I only use the new forms of each thing, but the
"software rot" problem is far more severe in MacLisp than any other language.
If you take a 1-week vacation, it is likely that a new distribution tape has
arrived (we're not on the net at TI, yet anyway) and that your programs won't
work till you edit X, Y, and Z.  If you have a very busy schedule that includes
things besides hacking (giving talks, selling management on AI, selling other
parts of the company on "doing the winning thing", managing a project or three,
teaching a class), it is easy to find your programs and lectures falling months
behind what the system actually does.  This is very painful.
     Thanks for listening to our views.  Regards, Mark