Re: [Matlisp-users] Re: what is #+nil good for?

[Raymond T. <ray...@er...>]

>>>>> "Sam" == Sam Steingold <sd...@gn...> writes:

    Sam> with all due respect to everyone involved, we all sometimes write lousy
    Sam> code (at least _I_ do, and that makes me think that others sometimes
    Sam> might too), so the fact that Dan Barlow does it, does not prove that the
    Sam> trick is valid.

    >> #+nil (error "The author of this file habitually uses #+nil to comment out
    >> forms.  But don't worry, it was unlikely to work in the New Implementation
    >> of Lisp anyway")

    Sam> if your user uses this #+nil trick and then adds NIL to
    Sam> *features* just to enable some code, you will have a lot of fun
    Sam> explaining to him why matlisp is suddenly broken.

Someone randomly adding stuff to *features* deserves what he gets. :-)

    Sam> plain and simply, "#+nil" is a source code bug
    Sam> (unless you _do_ support the New Implementation of Lisp).

Since I can never remember if it should be (or) or (and), the
probablility of me getting it wrong is much higher then if I use
#+nil.  (Although when I do remember, I do try to use (or) or (and) as
appropriate.) 

Besides, maybe nil means Not-Implemented-Locally?  Or was that
Now-Implemented-Locally?  :-)

Ray