What's wrong with your HEAD?

[John Keith]

Thanks for your detailed reply, 3298. I have only a vague knowledge of the internal structure of objects but I had assumed that a list had its size encoded within it somehow. The user command SIZE seems to be quite fast even on large lists.

I am aware of the compromises necessary to fit the operating system and commands into a relatively small amount of memory- "Life is short and ROM is full." It still irks me that such basic commands as HEAD and TAIL were not better thought out.