From: David Combs
Subject: Mentioned book "better than steele"?
Date: 
Message-ID: <dkcombsF9qGq2.K0G@netcom.com>
I saw this in one recent posting:
  
  "But he was right--the wording was awful in Steele.  (I hope I fixed
  it in the ANSI CL spec; the wording is different--who knows if it's
  enough of a change to avoid wrong interpretations but there have
  been no subsequent complaints.)

What (new?) book was he talking about?

Thanks!

David  
From: Usman Muzaffar
Subject: Re: Mentioned book "better than steele"?
Date: 
Message-ID: <370952C2.61C69D58@thynne.psych.nwux.edu>
David Combs wrote:
> 
> I saw this in one recent posting:
> 
>   "But he was right--the wording was awful in Steele.  (I hope I fixed
>   it in the ANSI CL spec; the wording is different--who knows if it's
>   enough of a change to avoid wrong interpretations but there have
>   been no subsequent complaints.)
> 
> What (new?) book was he talking about?
> 

Well, he says right there -- the ANSI Common Lisp spec.
I looked up the article you were referring in DejaNews 
(message id : <···············@world.std.com> )
it was by Kent Pitman, who is the X3J13 project editor.
Check out: 

http://www.harlequin.com/education/books/HyperSpec/FrontMatter/index.html
for the CL HyperSpec, which is based on the spec. I think you can
also order a hardcopy of the spec there.

HTH,
-usman
From: Vassil Nikolov
Subject: Re: Mentioned book "better than steele"?
Date: 
Message-ID: <7ecgpj$eqf$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com>
In article <·················@netcom.com>,
  ·······@netcom.com (David Combs) wrote:
>
> I saw this in one recent posting:
>
>   "But he was right--the wording was awful in Steele.  (I hope I fixed
                                                ^^^^^^ (1)
>   it in the ANSI CL spec; the wording is different--who knows if it's
          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ (2)
>   enough of a change to avoid wrong interpretations but there have
>   been no subsequent complaints.)
>
> What (new?) book was he talking about?
                       ^^ this was Kent Pitman, the editor of the
                          ANSI CL standard

<:-)> This looks like an English language textbook exercise. </:-)>

I see only two references here:
(1) to _Common Lisp: the Language_ by Steele, to the 1st and/or the 2nd
    edition (work on the ANSI standard started having CLtL as the basis,
    and CLtL2 appeared a couple of years later and a couple of years
    before the official standard appeared);
(2) to the ANSI Common Lisp specification (X3.226).

The phrase `the wording is different' refers to the fact that though
the ANSI CL spec was based on Steele's text, the latter was substantially
re-worded for the ANSI standard.

Vassil Nikolov <········@poboxes.com> www.poboxes.com/vnikolov
(You may want to cc your posting to me if I _have_ to see it.)
   LEGEMANVALEMFVTVTVM  (Ancient Roman programmers' adage.)

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