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Here are two alternative formulations of keywords, both based on the
idea that keywords are pure syntax, with no representation at run time.
1) Keyword-value arguments are sorted into order corresponding to
the alphabetical order of the keywords. Thus (foo 'bar foo: 32 bar: 54)
comes out at run time as (foo 'bar 54 32). Similar treatment is
given to keywords in lambda lists. (Note: forcer came up with this
one independently.)
2) Keywords are syntactic sugar for a single argument in the form of an
a-list. This maps (foo 'bar foo: 32 bar: 54) to
(foo 'bar '((foo: . 32) (bar: . 54))). Keywords in lambda lists are
initialized by unpacking the a-list when the procedure is invoked.
--
John Cowan <cowan@ccil.org>
Yakka foob mog. Grug pubbawup zink wattoom gazork. Chumble spuzz.
-- Calvin, giving Newton's First Law "in his own words"