[no subject]

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

Bob, as long as #+ is constrained to call the Maclisp reader, it isn't
fair that (COND ((= C #+LISPM #\STOP-OUTPUT #-LISPM #^S) ...) ...) should
fail at read-time.

I would advocate one of two things.

* STOP-OUTPUT should read as some useful value (eg, #^S). This would make it
  possible perhaps to actually share code between dialects.

* If you want to force an error, why not have #\STOP-OUTPUT simply read as
  the symbol STOP-OUTPUT in Maclisp. Then things like (= C #\STOP-OUTPUT)
  would die on a 
	;STOP-OUTPUT NON-NUMERIC VALUE
  error, which would help quickly isolate the location of the error. And things
  like #+LISPM #\STOP-OUTPUT would not fry the reader.

I think I prefer the latter solution because it sets a useful precedent for
how to handle other characters which may not have simple mappings in ascii
(<hand-up>, <end>, ... etc.)

-kmp