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From: Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
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Subject: Re: defconst
Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 09:00:01 -0500
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Originally I intended defconst for variables that the program should
not change, but the user might.  However, later on we concluded it was
not right to use defconst for these, and that it should be used only
for things that should never change at all.

I am not surprised that it has been misused.