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Re: Miscellenia



> 
> ``p1-17 "It is currently under discussion whether to provide constructs
> for giving generic functions local names."  Do we want to have this
> discussion, or to punt on this syntax. I recall we did come up with some
> reasonble semantics for a GFLET and GFLABELS.''

> I am willing to write up a proposal for this, basing it on our latest
> thoughts from the mail, if people wish. I do not feel strongly about
> this at the moment.

I also don't feel strongly about it at the moment, but a proposal would be
good, if other people agree. Originally, there was some talk about a 
GFLAMBDA, but that didn't seem to make it into the document. If you're
open for suggestions, a useful primitive that might address all these
uses might be GFUNCTION, similar to the FUNCTION special form, except
it takes multiple lambda's as arguments.

> [Note: Hackers are proud of having invented the `mumble' convention. However,
> there is rarely anything new under the sun. Here is a quote from the Saturday
,
> August 25, 1753 Adventurer by Samuel Johnson:

> 	   ``I remember,'' says he, ``it was on just such a morning as
> 	   this that I and my lord Mumble and the Duke of Tenterden were
> 	   out upon a ramble....''

> ``Tenterden'' is someone who tends a den.]

Interesting. My English friends tend to use "doobrey" as an unbound in
similar circumstances, viz. DEF<doobrey>. Perhaps, in the 200 odd years
since we've been independent, the language has diverged, like the
pronounciation of "clerk".

I used to occasionally use "X" as an unbound, but, thanks to 
Bob Schieffler, that's out now.

			jak