>>>>> "Robert" == Robert Dodier <robert.dodier at gmail.com> writes:
Robert> If I tell Maxima "Treat everything from a to z as a digit"
Robert> the best I can hope for is that a, b, c, 2e3, etc become integers.
Robert> If that's not what I want, then I won't change ibase.
Robert> Common Lisp allows this same ambiguity, and somehow
Robert> it staggers ahead unimpeded.
I assume this is so because most people don't change the base, but use
the special reader syntax to input the numbers, like #xabc, #o123,
#b10101, etc. I certainly have had no need for numbers in other
bases.
And after looking at some other Lisp code where the default base was
8, it's no fun trying to understand what is happening if you didn't
know the base was set to 8.
Ray