<snip>
I was thinking that the @ syntax would be at the user top level, but the
common lisp syntax would be the same underneath, using : or ::. But maybe
this doesn't really hold up unless you have nested packages. That is, you
would have maxima-user::packagename::symbolname in lisp, that
would correspond to packagename@@symbolname at the top level.
Allegro CL actually has nested packages, but that is an extension to CL.
>
> I really don't think this is advisable. Using @ in place of :
> would essentially give Maxima a peculiar dialect of CL. It's
> hard enough to comprehend Maxima code to begin with; I don't
> think we want to make it any harder.
Right, I wouldn't want to change the common lisp syntax underneath maxima.
>
<snip>
> The CL package system is pretty strange, and,
> aside from the fact that it's built into the language in
> which Maxima is programmed, doesn't have much to recommend it. IMNSHO.
I have never really gotten comfortable with the CL package system myself.