> There are no obvious subsets in Common Lisp - see Baker
i think baker's point, and i'm sure you know it's also been discussed to death on #lisp at some point, that you can't choose one obvious set of fundamental special forms, in terms of which you can express a common lisp, because some of those forms can be in various ways expressed in terms of each other. his other point is that spec's special forms are underspecified. but i don't think that he's making a point that one can't take spec's special forms, treat that set of special forms as arbitrary, but working, and implement a common lisp with them. i've not given this subject enough thought, but do you by any chance have links to somebody making that point, that you can't in fact implement a common lisp using just special forms.
i think baker's point, and i'm sure you know it's also been discussed to death on #lisp at some point, that you can't choose one obvious set of fundamental special forms, in terms of which you can express a common lisp, because some of those forms can be in various ways expressed in terms of each other. his other point is that spec's special forms are underspecified. but i don't think that he's making a point that one can't take spec's special forms, treat that set of special forms as arbitrary, but working, and implement a common lisp with them. i've not given this subject enough thought, but do you by any chance have links to somebody making that point, that you can't in fact implement a common lisp using just special forms.