[Openmcl-devel] Trunk and released version

[Tobias C. Rittweiler]

Ron Garret <ron at flownet.com> writes:

> 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.

It allows for an implementation based on DO*.

  -T.