RE: [External] : Re: Shrinking the C core

[Drew Adams]

> For functions like `cl-incf', where there is no corresponding
> "incf" [I don't know whatever happened to it or why it was
> dropped, or maybe it wasn't ever there before cl-lib?] one
> could setup aliases or simply drop the "cl-" prefix (and set
> an "cl-incf" alias to the new "incf" as not to break existing
> code).

The CL emulation was originally in file `cl.el' and
its helper files, such as `cl-macs.el'.  At that time
functions/macros such as `cl-incf' and `cl-case' had
no `cl-' prefix.  E.g., Emacs 20:
___

 incf is a Lisp macro in `cl'.
 (incf PLACE &optional X)

 (incf PLACE [X]): increment PLACE by X (1 by default).
 PLACE may be a symbol, or any generalized variable allowed by `setf'.
 The return value is the incremented value of PLACE.
___

 case is a Lisp macro in `cl-macs'.
 (case EXPR &rest CLAUSES)

 (case EXPR CLAUSES...): evals EXPR, chooses from CLAUSES on that value.
 Each clause looks like (KEYLIST BODY...).  EXPR is evaluated and compared
 against each key in each KEYLIST; the corresponding BODY is evaluated.
 If no clause succeeds, case returns nil.  A single atom may be used in
 place of a KEYLIST of one atom.  A KEYLIST of `t' or `otherwise' is
 allowed only in the final clause, and matches if no other keys match.
 Key values are compared by `eql'.
___

There's no `incf' or `case' in Elisp that would
conflict with the CL-emulation definitions, but
when Someone decided to prefix CL thingies with
`cl-' the decision was to do it wholesale, not
just where there was a collision/conflict with
existing Elisp thingies.