[amake]

> let* permits expressions on the right refer to arbitrary other symbols bound by the let*

In what language? I just checked Elisp, SBCL, and Guile, and they all error out if you refer to a variable not previously defined by a left-to-right traversal of the varlist:

    (let* ((a (+ b 1)) (b 1)) a)

Edit: This doesn't work either:

    (let* ((a (lambda () (+ b 1))) (b 1)) (funcall a)) ; (funcall a) -> (a) for Schemes

[amake]

Anyway, as far as I'm seeing it's perfectly possible to implement let* consistent with the above behavior as a macro without mutation as such:

    (define-macro (let* bindings &rest body)
      (if (null? bindings)
        `(progn ,@body)
        `(let (,(car bindings))
           (let* ,(cdr bindings)
             ,@body))))