Re: Grindef

[GLS@MIT-AI]

CC: GLS at MIT-AI, (BUG LISPM) at MIT-AI
    MOON@MIT-MC 10/31/79 11:16:17 Re: Grindef
        GLS@MIT-AI 10/30/79 16:58:27
        In system 20.2, with microcode 593, on LISP Machine Eight:
        GRINDEF of no arguments is supposed to use the arguments last given it;
        but it traps out with an error instead.  This is a royal pain.

    I never heard of this "feature" before.  Is it really useful?
    I suppose it could be put in....

Well, it has always worked that way on the PDP-10, and it
is incredibly useful when you are making iterated versions of
one function and constantly re-reading it.  This I find
especially true when the function involved was generated by
three levels of hairy macro and has a very long (generated) name.
If I'm debugging the three levels of hairy macro, iterated
GRINDEF's are essential to figuring out what's going on.
(I was doing just this when I complained.)