Re: PUSH / human factors / consistency principles

[John R. Ellis <Ellis at YALE>]

The arguments about visual order reflecting internal lisp structure
are stronger arguments (as compared to English-usage arguments).

    ...I find this a much stronger principle than the object-oriented
    principle that, to the best of my introspection, has never participated
    in my use of LISP, and which I don't find terribly relevant (maybe
    because I try to avoid side-effect programming as much as possible).

The object methodology and side-effect programming are orthogonal concepts.
Traditonal Lisps and Lisp programs, like other programming languages,
generally don't use any kind of object-methodology at all, and they suffer
because of it.  This contributes to their baroqueness.  T is not a
traditional Lisp by any of the imagination.

    Another /minor\ rule of thumb I use in determining argument order
    is to try to put the "simpler" or "smaller" arguments first.

This was Kent Pitman's argument for why it should be (PUSH STACK VALUE).
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