Backquote idioms

[Guy Steele <gls%AQUINAS@THINK.ARPA>]

Has anyone ever undertaken a study or catalog of backquote idioms?
Those of you who have used backquote at all seriously have probably come
to regard
		',	,',	,,	,@,	,@',	,',',

as primitive idioms, almost recognizable as units, such as we take in CADDR
at a glance without thinking about the three component operations.

I raise this question because a few weeks ago I was confronted for the
first time with a situation for which the eventual solution was

		,@(LIST ,@X)

and it occurred to me that  ,@(LIST ,@  is another useful idiom.
(It is the splicing analogue[*] of ,, .)

Anyway, it would be interesting to assemble a list of such useful idioms.
It might make a good paper for the 1986 LISP conference.  (Alan, are
you listening?)

--Guy


[*] I am aware that it is terribly inconsistent of me to write "catalog"
but "analogue".  I promise not to do it again (very much).