You can easily change that behavior if you really want to. (in-package :my-packa... | Hacker News

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lisper on May 10, 2018 | parent | context | favorite | on: Common Lisp homepage

You can easily change that behavior if you really want to.

(in-package :my-package)

(shadow 'if)

(defmacro if (condition then else) `(cl:if (true? ,condition) ,then ,else))

(defgeneric true? (thing) t)

Defining appropriate defmethods to make things work the way you want is left as an exercise.

kazinator on May 10, 2018 [–]

However, wanting to is rather a problem for the psychiatrist's couch.

lisper on May 11, 2018 | [–]

Why? I actually agree with the OP that conflating the empty list and the boolean false value is a mistake. (I don't think it's enough of a big deal for me to want to change it, but in a perfect world I do think it is better to distinguish them.)

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