[no subject]

[Earl Killian <EKILLIAN at BBN-TENEXE>]

I just picked up a copy of the LISP CHINE NUAL (very interesting cover
- it says "ma ma" on the back).  I suppose by now you know your
printer blew it and put page 107 out of sequence.

I notice on page 1 it says "It is hoped that anyone with some previous
programming experience (not necessarily in Lisp) could learn all about
the Lisp language and the Lisp Machine from the manual."  Are you
serious?  I think you ought to strike that sentence; it isn't true,
nor do I think it should be.

Also, on page 136 I think you've been unfair in picking your example.
Of course you want to show off defmacro and backquote, but writing
(macro for (x)
 (cons 'do
       (cons (cadr x)
	     (cons (caddr x)
		   (cons (list '1+ (cadr x))
			 (cons (list '> (cadr x) (cadddr x))
			       (cddddr x)))))))
instead of
(macro for (x)
 (append (list 'do (cadr x) (caddr x) (list '1+ (cadr x))
	       (list '> (cadr x) (cadddr x)))
	 (cddddr x)))
is just making the problem seem even worse than it already is (this is
something Madison Ave. would do).