[hajile]

The Java VM Spec is almost 650 pages.

The core Java spec is another 850 pages. The core Java libraries add countless more pages on top.

The "CL is big" myth is a strange one. Big was in context of a 80286 in 1982. It already wasn't big by the 90s and a full-blown CL implementation is absolutely TINY compared to pretty much any other managed language you can think of.

I can't speak to the VM spec, but the 90s Java spec and the Common Lisp spec were both largely written by Guy Steel (who said that Java was meant as a stepping stone to shift C programmers a little closer to Common Lisp).

ISlisp and EUlisp both attempt to "correct" the Common Lisp language. Neither has been successful and the big reasons are that CL's core features aren't actually broken and the biggest complaint (naming conventions not always aligning well) can be completely fixed with macros if you want (there are dozens of such projects).

[xvilka]

If one wants a "fixed" CL they could look at Scheme. Sadly, that language didn't become even as popular as CL.

[dragonwriter]

> If one wants a "fixed" CL they could look at Scheme.

CL is almost a decade newer than Scheme, so if one believes Scheme to be the superior one, it would make more sense to call CL a broken Scheme than Scheme a fixed CL.

[xvilka]

Latest Scheme standard is much more recent than the CL one, though. Thus my point still stands.