Re: #\EOF

[Kent M. Pitman <KMP at MIT-MC>]

The reason is that EOF must be a value which is not a possible character
to be useful. Since the space of characters is system-dependent, then so
is the complementary space of not-possible characters. If I have to do
(EVAL-WHEN (EVAL COMPILE) (SETQ EOF -1.)) .... code involving #.EOF ...
instead of doing #\EOF where that value is defined by the system, then I
might as well just reference -1 and be done with it... and I might as well
have written 65. as #/A ...  I once proposed that a # thing be made to get
funny symbols in addition to fixnum reps of those symbols and people said why
don't I use #.(ASCII #\...). I agree that that case was a convenience issue,
but I don't agree that #\EOF is of the same class. Doesn't *anyone* else see 
that unless the system is complete, it doesn't really buy you what it 
pretends to? JAR or GLS -- I would be interested in your comments.
-kmp