Re:Programming Algorithms in Lisp: Data Structures
by verandacoffee on Wednesday August 07, 2019 @09:14AM
(#20634373)
> ...I value your opinion...
And I value your work on this book.
I apologize for having said at the beginning that "This makes the book untrustworthy, whatever good features it might have." It was unwarranted, and not substantiated, and much too harsh.
I do however stand by my claim that it is undefined behaviour. (You could help by making the suggested changes to rutils.)
Exactly
> but one could equally well argue the opposite
No, as variables and functions are different parts and there's a more general rule about functions applied to keywords.
Your argument seems to be based on a notion that keywords are something unique and special in CL. They are, but only to the extent that is specified in this section. Otherwise, they are the same as other symbols.
To me, Lisp is not about "forbidden all that's not explicitly allowed", but about "allowed all that's not explicitly forbidden" mentality. And it's, actually, an important trait of the language that makes me value it more than others. So, sorry, I value your opinion, but I think that such things as := need to exist if only to broaden the horizons of people with such opinions :)