ISO Lisp

["Scott E. Fahlman" <Fahlman@C.CS.CMU.EDU>]

I agree with RPG's analaysis, and share his lack of enthusiasm for
starting over.

I've been assuming that if we get an ANSI standard for Common Lisp, the
U.S. military and friends will be free to shoose that over an
incompatible ISO standard.  Is that right?  Presumably some foreign
governments and researchers will not have that freedom; that gives them
some incentive to vote for us rather than EuLisp if it comes down to a
choice at ISO.  If the vote doesn't come up for a year or so, the
dominance of Common Lisp will be very clear, since all of the
manufacturers will have their implementations out and in good shape by
then, all of the major expert-system shells will be converted, and the
research community will have made the move.  Right now we can see that
the necessary momentum is there, but from the outside it may not be so
clear since lots of things are just in beta-test or unannounced.

-- Scott