Re: / and \

[Earl A. Killian <EAK at MIT-MC>]

    Date: 01/23/81 03:36:10
    From: Moon at MIT-AI

    What should the \ function be renamed to?  Is \\ reasonable?

Maybe "%" would be a better quote character, given the natural
symmetry between / and \.  Is this the Interlisp character?  Oh
shit, the LispM uses this all over for internal frobs, doesn't
it?  Of course, %% would look even more internal!

    I guess it isn't necessary to worry about fixnum-only names for
    these, since computer manufacturers perversely don't provide the
    operation anyway.  ...  As far as I know, everyone agrees that the
    present \\ (fixnum gcd) is useless and can simply be flushed.

As to fixnum versions of things: if you want them, you might as
well use Ixxx, where xxx is the generic name.  E.g. IGCD.  I
don't see why every random arithmetic function needs a single
character name (indeed there's MIN and MAX).