Re: un-deprecating CL

[Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>]

    > One possible alternative is to define these functions with a cl-
    > prefix, and for callers to use that prefix.  That gets rid of the
    > namespace issue.  And if we think of them as internal parts of
    > some Lisp package, they would not have to be in the Lisp Manual.

    Would it be possible to use compiler macros so that existing programs
    could continue to use these functions' un-prefixed names at compile
    time?

That would be possible, but it seems like a bad idea -- it would
confuse people reading the program.  Writing the calls with `cl-'
would be a clearer practice.

    That would be helpful but it would still prevent many programs from
    being contributed.

"Prevent" is too strong a word.  These programs would need some change
in order to be installed in Emacs.

Adding `cl-' in front of certain function names is a pretty easy
change to make; we could add a command like query-replace to do it
semiautomatically.