Re: Differences between Elisp and Lisp

[Thomas Link <samul@web.de>]

> I thought that CL already implemented lexical binding? At least within
> a let form (or "lexical-let"). 

I guess it's faking lexical binding by replacing variable names with 
gensyms. This makes it pseudo-lexical but not more efficient.

> If emacs just went to using lexical binding in the large, I suspect
> that it would cause lots of problems with existing packages. I have
> used dynamic scoping to achieve ends in the past, which might be a bit
> nasty, but it does work!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but e.g. Common Lisp has dynamic binding for 
variables defined with defvar. The following works with clisp:

	(defvar x 1)
	(defun y (a) (+ x 1))
	(y 1) => 2
	(let ((x 10)) (y 1)) => 11

So one could have both. The question is, which one should be the 
"default" mode and which one should be subject to special constructs.

Cheers,
Thomas.