[no subject]

[Daniel L. Weinreb <dlw at MIT-AI>]

It appears that Multics Maclisp is doing the documented thing.  The Lisp
Machine is doing the right thing except that EQUAL is being used where
EQ should be used.  Amusingly, the function NSUBST (the "destructive"
version of SUBST in the Lisp Machine) uses EQ!

The Lisp Machine system software uses SUBST in seven places.  Six of
them (once in DISPLACE, twice in the microassembler, once in ZWEI, once
in DEFSTRUCT, and once in the compiler) are (SUBST NIL NIL ...).  The
seventh is an ancient macro in the console diagnostic program, which
uses a symbol as the second argument.  There are also all the DEFSUBSTs,
which use a symbol as one argument.  Therefore, changing this will not
affect any of the installed LispM software.  However, it might break
user software.  In particular, I am worried about Macsyma.  I would like
to see the Lispm changed to use EQ as documented, but I would like to
hear whether Macsyma will break, and to hear what the other LispM system
people say.