Proposed incompatible change to MacLISP FORMAT function

[RWK at MIT-MC (Robert W. Kerns)]

From:     Date:
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 79 23:44:18 GMT
Original-Date: 06/15/79 19:44:18 EDT
Subject:
    From: GLS at MIT-AI
    To:   *CMU, *DM, *MC, *ML, *AI
    Re:   Proposed incompatible change to MacLISP FORMAT function

    Currently NIL means "output to the standard output files" (under the
    control of TYO, OUTFILES, ^W, and ^R variables), and T means "output
    to the file in the TYO variable".  ... to get what NIL now means, one
    can use T. To get what T now means, one can use a list of T, i.e. (T).
    Any objections?
    -- GLS

What's wrong with using TYO to mean "output to the file in the TYO variable"?
(For that matter, why not call TYO something LISPM compatible like
CONSOLE-OUTPUT?  It's probably too late, but calling the variable TYO was a
mistake, I think.)  I have never used T to mean TYO, I always use TYO directly,
so this won't break any of my code on that score, although maybe the NIL might.

However, I think this change is important enough to change to make it worth
fixing the various code which will be broken.  (JONL:  No cracks about fixing
DRB's modes package, please!)