[Openmcl-devel] Trunk and released version

[Ron Garret]

On Aug 13, 2009, at 9:12 AM, Tim Bradshaw wrote:

> On 13 Aug 2009, at 15:55, Ron Garret wrote:
>
>> I'd call that a bug in the ANSI spec.  It violates the principle of  
>> least surprise for no benefit whatsoever.  If X is unconditionally  
>> bound to NIL then there is no point in even having it in scope when  
>> the result-form is evaluated.
>
> I'm guessing it's for compatibility with DOTIMES.

But in the case of DOTIMES the iteration variable is rebound (or  
assigned) to a potentially useful value.  In the case of DOLIST it's  
assigned (or rebound) to a constant (NIL) which cannot possibly serve  
any useful purpose.

rg