Re: External-syntax for number radices

[JONL@MIT-MC]

Since the question of an "octal escape" has come up, it might
be well to review the discussion that took place last summer
on this matter for NIL.   Forms such as  123[16] and +9AF[16]
were rejected in favor of #16R123 and #16R+9AF;  which lead to
shorthands like  #O777 for octal and #X9AF for hexadecimal.
Part of the problem with the former style is that the brackets
have been overused for so many purposes, mainly user-implemented
macros, but also the latter style preserves the general left-to-
right parsing simplicity (no "backup" needed).  As for # being
a postfix character, this would make it even more confusing, 
since it has so many, random, prefix uses already.