LOOP

[David A. Moon <Moon@SCRC-STONY-BROOK.ARPA>]

    Date: Thu, 11 Apr 1985  02:07 EST
    From: "Scott E. Fahlman" <Fahlman@CMU-CS-C.ARPA>

	How will we know when a Yellow Pages exists?  Presumably it's not enough
	for a random person to declare that it exists and that contributions are
	encouraged and will be made available to the world...

    Well, we've begun to gather our locally-produced Lisp packages together
    here at CMU.  At present, we have not separated this into portable and
    Perq-specific libraries, but we are keeping track of which things claim
    to be portable and nearly portable.  When this library stabilizes, it
    will be the beginning of a Yellow pages.  I guess it's not official
    until some support organization is set up to maintain and distribute
    this stuff.

Good news.  Maybe soon I can stop grousing that I've been trying for three
years to submit something to the yellow pages.

    ....That would happen a lot quicker if someone were to make available a
    public-domain version of LOOP (either syntax) as a starting point.

The current LOOP is public-domain, but it only runs in Maclisp-compatible
languages.  Its code is also pretty ugly, since it has to stay within the least
common denominator of Maclisp.  I think there is no reason why the new LOOP for
Common Lisp should not be public domain; the big question is who is going to
come up with the time and energy to write it?

I agree that the way to proceed is to create portable programs that people can
try using, rather than standardizing prematurely.