An even simpler implementation is the representation of dynamic variables with simple global variables. The local binding is performed by saving the original value in an anonymous location on the stack that is invisible to the program. When that binding scope terminates, the original value is restored from this location. In fact, dynamic scope originated in this manner. Early implementations of Lisp used this obvious strategy for implementing local variables, and the practice survives in some dialects which are still in use, such as GNU Emacs Lisp. Lexical scope was introduced into Lisp later. This is equivalent to the above shallow binding scheme, except that the central reference table is simply the global variable binding context, in which the current meaning of the variable is its global value. Maintaining global variables isn't complex. For instance, a symbol object can have a dedicated slot for its global value.
