From ...
From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.no>
Subject: Re: defvar and (declaim (special ...))
Date: 1999/04/10
Message-ID: <3132774043802040@naggum.no>#1/1
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References: <m2bth3b7aa.fsf@plateau.rug.ac.be> <GL4O2.265$kM2.40098@burlma1-snr2> <sfwhfqp6lua.fsf@world.std.com> <7eoaqg$399$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com>
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* Vassil Nikolov <vnikolov@poboxes.com>
| I don't know how good this analogy really is, but I am thinking about the
| way C treats global variables.  (If I recall the terminology correctly, a
| _definition_ has an initialiser, otherwise it is just a _declaration_; in
| the absence of any initialisers all declarations collectively serve as
| the definition.)
| 
| Of course, it is not hard to learn to recognise (DECLAIM (SPECIAL *FOO*))
| as an idiom for (DEFVAR *FOO*) though I'd prefer the latter (shorter,
| expresses intent more clearly).

  um, the former is a declaration and the latter is a definition, very much
  like the C terminology.  doesn't it stand out as such, too?  DECLAIM and
  DEFine-VARiable?  it's more than "idiom" to me, and if I were to look for
  definitions, I'd be happy to find a DEFVAR without binding the variable
  to a particular value.

  it looks like a mere load-order hack to me.

#:Erik