As someone who writes CL for fun, I think all &quot;let&#x27;s get the core language (any language) API right <i>this</i> time&quot; efforts are ultimately doomed to perdition and entropy.<p>I&#x27;d rather have an API that&#x27;s not quite perfect, but has had much thought and wisdom put into it, and is as stable as continents, than an API that&#x27;s always iterating towards some unreachable Platonic idea of perfection.<p>As an aside, the author has also created a -- likely more agreeable -- spin off library that&#x27;s a simpler interface to cl-ppcre: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;fukamachi&#x2F;re21" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;fukamachi&#x2F;re21</a>