A little errata:


> The limitation is that only one element can (and has to) appear after the
> period, and at least one element needs to appear before it. Otherwise you
> get a syntax voilation:
>
> '(1 2 . 3)
> ===> (1 2 3)
>

Should be:
===> (1 2 . 3)

Also, the dotted pair syntax and its eqivalent list syntax were both
established by John McCarthy in his 1960 paper which introduced LISP to the
world:
http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/recursive/recursive.html (section 3)