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About &parsers



A *heavy* advantage of having extensions to the DEFUN syntax macroexpand
into the most primitive DEFUN or LAMBDA syntax is that at least then the
behavior would be WELL-DEFINED. The present situation on the LISP-MACHINE
with different semantics and binding "times" in the compiler vs. interpreter,
and especially the dependency of binding "times" on the complexity of
the forms being bound is truly disgusting. The Maclisp extended DEFUN syntax
was well-defined in its very early forms, but lost this definiteness for the
sake of optimizations.

If we give up the formal nature of the lisp language, leaving a wake of ill-defined
constructs, then I think we give up the game itself, lisp relegated to being a
hackers-only language.