STRING error messages

[Robert W. Kerns <RWK at MIT-MC>]

    Date: 4 December 1980 10:39-EST
    From: Richard L. Bryan <RLB at MIT-MC>
    Subject: STRING error messages
    To: BUG-LISP at MIT-MC

        Date: 4 December 1980 01:07-EST
        From: Robert W. Kerns <RWK at MIT-MC>

            From: John G. Aspinall <JGA at MIT-MC>

	    ;ARDS ~1G~S does not pass the ~0G~S test, for function ~2G~S ?
	. . .

	If you load FORMAT you'll get totally winning messages.  However, since
	some systems can't tolerate the address space consumed by FORMAT, it
	isn't loaded by default.  So as a poor alternate, it just gives you the
	format string.
    Well, perhaps the rest of the args to the nonexistent FORMAT could appear
    on the screen as well, like what test (~0G) and what function (~2G).  I
    often find myself ^Ging, loading FORMAT, and recreating the error in order
    to find this out.
Unfortunately, LISP's error system doesn't provide a way to do this.  In a
WRONG-TYPE-ARG error, the second argument to ERROR should be the offending
object.