[pro] What was wrong with environments as in CLTL2 pp. 207-214?

Dear all,

I am currently implementing the environments interface described in section 8.5 of CLTL2 (pp. 207-214) for MKCL. It feels like a very natural extension of what was already part of the code of the Lisp-to-C compiler MKCL inherited. It feels so natural in fact that I cannot figure out why that feature has been pulled out of the final ANSI CL specification. [And I have a hell of time standing all those (declare (ignore env)) sprinkled all over the MKCL source code.]

I think that some of you reading this list were there, part of the action, during those standardization days. Maybe you could shed some light on what was wrong with this part of the spec and motivated its removal.

Cheers,

Jean-Claude Beaudoin