ITERATE, DEFINE and CELLs

[CPH%MIT-OZ@MIT-MC.ARPA]

    Date: Friday, 29 March 1985  08:49-EST
    From: Chris Haynes <cth%indiana.csnet at csnet-relay.arpa>

    > 	How am I supposed to define things if both DEFINE! and DEFINE
    > go away?

    With SET!, provided one assumes that all identifiers are initially
    bound in the global environment, or that SET!  can extend the
    global environment.  With the exception of MIT's Scheme, this is
    what existing systems do.  If MIT is unwilling to change this,
    then we are reluctantly stuck with DEFINE.

This is a terrible idea.  It seems that the ability to have many
different environments in which to perform incremental definitions has
been consistently overlooked by almost everyone except MIT Scheme and
T.  Anyone who has ever tried to program a BIG system, and by that I
mean something over 500-1000 pages of code, knows that this kind of
packaging is **ESSENTIAL**!!  So please don't try to take this away.