Abstract

this paper. In short, the choice of which "macros" are "special forms" is just as arbitrary as the choice of a axes in a coordinate system for the Cartesian X-Y plane---e.g., some sets of macros are "linearly independent", and some sets of macros "span" the space of special forms. Some of our emulations may only be approximate, in the sense that certain syntactic variations are not supported, and certain error conditions are not recognized. These emulations are meant to be only a starting point for a serious effort in pinning down the semantics of Common Lisp, and significant additional effort will be required to complete this task.

Citations