Re: Var-free programming (slightly off-topic)

[Dan Weinreb <address@hidden>]

   Date: Wed, 05 Dec 2001 13:04:32 -0500
   From: Scott McKay <swm@hotdispatch.com>

   I don't think the distinction between core and libraries is particularly
   blurry.  

Really?  (To those of you who think it looks like I'm trying to be
provocative of Scott intentionally, let me reassure you that Scott and
I have known each other for over 15 years and we've been known to
provoke each other six times before breakfast just for the fun of it.)

We often heard complaints that the Common Lisp language was "too big",
and sometimes we responded by pointing out that there was a lot of
stuff in the Common Lisp book that was not in any way central to the
langauge, stuff that could just as easily be in an option library.

Java's collection classes are universally referred to by Java people
as being part of the libraries, whereas the basic Common Lisp
collection stuff is always referred to as being "in the language"
(since they're documented right there in the language reference
manual).  But technically, the distinction seems pretty arbitrary.
In that sense, I think the distinction can be blurry.